What's a Monster to Do?
by Twilit Bakery
Summary: Penelope Potter was a monster. Well, technically she was only half of one, but an empousa she met named Kelli reassured her that she was a descendant of Hecate, making them cousins of some sort. Penny wasn't sure how to feel about that, as Kelli later tried to get her to eat some mortals... which wasn't really her thing. Fem!Monster!Harry Fluffy!HarryxBianca GoFCliche! Please R&R
1. A 'Freaky' Beginning

_November 1991_

Petunia POV:

Penelope was a freak.

From Petunia's point of view, she was a worthless little bastard that her sister bore for some no-name after she and her freakish husband couldn't conceive properly. It was just like her sister to sleep with some other man like some… hussy after marrying someone who couldn't do his marital duties.

That the man's name was something detestable as… Thorn of all things only added to her apparent disgust with her sister's actions.

The next Petunia hears about her sister is that she's dead and that she left her mongrel with her!

The first thing Petunia tried to do was find the freak's filthy father, but with only the man's name, there wasn't anything she could do.

And really, what kind of name was 'Thorn' in the first place?

So now she was left with her sister's freakish, bastard daughter, and a letter from Li- her sister's former headmaster telling her to raise her.

As though anyone from that freakish world had any right to order her about.

There was however a very small silver lining from all of this, apparently, in their world, Lily's husband's family had a lot of money, and in exchange for raising his 'daughter' she would receive a monthly stipend, it wasn't as much as she deserved, but it would be enough to put up with the girl, for the time being, she was after all only a child, so she couldn't be that bad yet, even Lily, freak that she was didn't start showing it until after she got her Hogwarts letter, sure there were one or two unexplained incidents, but she seemed normal until she got back and started talking about her freakishness.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all, she could raise the girl right, instilling hard work and gratitude into her, she and Vernon could MAKE her normal, because if the freakish world could make a normal Lily into the freak that she died as then her and her husband could turn the freakish girl into a normal one.

Nodding, before setting the freakishly quiet baby into the cupboard, Petunia unknowingly sealed her fate.

_September 1996_

Penelope POV:

Growing up with the Dursleys was hard.

Growing up with the Dursleys was growing up malnourished, even as Dudley fattened himself she was fed very little.

Growing up with the Dursleys meant having no friends, and little contact with the outside world, nobody wanted to interact with the delinquent freak that the Dursleys were kind enough to take in after her alcoholic parents died, so the only people who spoke to her outside her relatives were the cruel boys in Dudley's gang who loved to chase her around, (beating her up if they caught her) hurling insults at her all the way around.

Growing up with the Dursleys was her own. Personal. Tartarus. She didn't know where she learned that word from, but she knew it was a bad, bad place she should avoid at all costs, it and many random bits of knowledge seemed to just kind of stick in her mind.

But as time went on, and as Penelope aged from six to seven things started changing.

The first was that Dudley's gang rarely caught her anymore, she became faster, a lot faster, and when she ran no one bothered her.

She felt free.

So Penelope started running, more and more as time went on, and as she turned seven she spent more time chasing the wind, chasing that feeling of exhilaration.

The second thing was a little weirder.

One day, when she was pulling some weeds from the flowerbeds, one of Dudley's gang, a rat-faced boy named Piers kicked her from behind.

When she turned around Piers was crying about how 'The freak hit me!' when he explained his injured foot, resulting in her being locked in her cupboard without dinner. For a week.

Days later she learned that he had fractured some of the bones in his foot.

Most of the boys in Dudley's little group avoided her after that.

Penelope never tested the limits of her tougher skin, but after a couple of nights cooking for the Dursleys, it became apparent that the knife she used to cut vegetables couldn't pierce her skin.

And while she was never 'beaten' by Vernon, he certainly wasn't against giving her a wallop or two if he felt she was 'being a layabout' or 'being ungrateful to him.'

Penelope didn't really know what to think of these developments, but she assumed it was part of her 'freakishness' and moved on.

_February 1997_

Penelope POV

After turning seven her changes started accelerating.

As Penelope started approaching the age of 8 she noticed that she was changing more and more.

At first, it was her eyes that drew her attention, they started to… narrow for lack of a better word, turning more and more catlike as the whites of her eyes started to be dyed a paler emerald, the original emerald color deepening as it met the pupil, turning her formerly emerald eyes into a gradient of color.

The second major change was her nails, she never grew them out very long for several reasons, but now she had no choice because she couldn't cut her nails, nothing seemed to get the slightest chip off of them as they grew from fingernails into… claws?

Regardless, these changes started to scare Penelope a little. At first, it was because she was afraid of her relative's reactions to her growing 'freakishness,' but it soon became evident that even though she could see all these changes happening to her, her relatives couldn't.

She mentioned her eyes casually to Aunt Petunia once, and to Penelope's surprise, she noticed nothing, only telling her to keep her thoughts to herself.

So Penelope was left confused. She did a little research and couldn't find anything remotely close to what was happening to her at the library, and even when she made eye contact with other people their eyes tended to… slip over her own, leaving Penelope even more befuddled.

So Penelope decided to leave it alone. It didn't hurt her, and no one seemed to notice the increasingly obvious changes, so she stopped caring about it so much, even as she realized she could see perfectly during the darkest of nights, and that her claws seemed unnaturally sharp she elected to ignore it.

After all, if it wasn't doing her any harm, then what's the worst that could happen?

_July 31, 1998_

Penelope POV

Penelope's eighth birthday was one she would remember for the rest of her life, at first it was any other day with the Dursleys: getting up early to fry some bacon and eggs, (sneaking herself a couple of pieces) then laundry, cleaning up breakfast, gardening, preparing lunch for Aunt Petunia and Dudley, cleaning up after lunch, which was followed by a moment to relax before her aunt told her to mow the lawn, and when she came inside Aunt Petunia gave her two grey socks wishing her a happy birthday, which was when she retired to her cupboard.

Tired from her day Penelope laid back on her tough 'bed,' trying to relax as she watched her only companion, a daddy-long-legs wander around the floor of her cupboard and decided to go to sleep early as a special gift for herself.

* * *

Penelope's sleep was interrupted when she felt a sudden discomfort from her… back?

She sat up suddenly, feeling an immense amount of comfort as her… something was freed from beneath her.

She tried to look behind her, stumbling in the relative darkness of her cupboard until she finally caught a glimpse of her… tail.

She, Penelope Potter had a… scorpion's tail? 'What?!' Penelope thought as she started panicking, her tail twitching slightly as she moved.

Penelope calmed for a moment, grabbing her tail to reassure herself it wasn't a dream, her tail twitching as she felt her hands grab it, turning her upper body, she was face to face with a rather threatening-looking stinger that reached just below her chin, curving away from her body, before curving in again and meeting her lower back.

Penelope was so absorbed in exploring her new limb she didn't hear the car pulling into the driveway, she didn't realize her Uncle Vernon was home until she heard the door slam and heard him bellow "FREAK!"

Startled from her new appendage, Penelope felt dread rise within her as she heard Vernon pound towards her cupboard, stumbling on its lock as he yelled something about her 'freakishness' and 'ruining his life.'

* * *

**This is a warning if you don't want to read a segment with violence and profanity that I honestly feel terrible having read, feel free to skip to the next chapter. This scene alone would make this story rated M, and is the only one of its kind I ever plan on writing. You don't need to read this for the rest of the story to make sense, nor do you truly need it for the sake of the chapter, I wrote it in because Penelope needs a reason to leave, and this fits the most cleanly. Honestly, you can probably guess what happens here, it is kind of a cliche so… do what you want, I'm just trying to provide a fair warning. I'll include a summary of the scene in the A/N next chapter.  
**

* * *

She didn't understand what was going on until Uncle Vernon yanked her out of the cupboard by her arm, the stink of alcohol on his breath and a vicious look in his eyes as he undid his belt.

"You little bitch! Think you can ruin my life and get away with it?! Well, I'll show you…" Uncle Vernon said ominously as he threw Penelope onto the table, dazing her as she struggled back to her feet. She turned towards Vernon only to receive a hit from his belt's buckle, sending her once again onto the table in a dizzied state.

"Think you can deny me a promotion do you? You ungrateful brat! Don't deserve to live under my roof, much less whisper lies into my boss' ears." He muttered, winding up his belt for another hit.

Penelope was on the table, dazed and confused as Vernon laid into her with his belt, none of the strikes doing any actual damage, only serving to further enrage Vernon.

"You think you can use your freakishness against me do you!" Vernon bellowed, a crazed gleam in his eyes as he pulled his pants down his legs, "Think you know better than me?!" He continued yanking his underwear down, "No freak will deny me in this house! If I can't beat the freakishness out of you then I'll have to use other methods." He finished reaching out and yanking at Penelope's shirt.

Penelope felt Vernon yanking at her shirt and jerked up, only to be slapped down again by Vernon. She looked up at his towering mass, scooting away as he rumbled forward, watching him waddle around furniture might have been amusing at another time but now it only struck more and more fear into Penelope's heart, she felt her tail catch on one of the legs of a table as Vernon drew ever closer, she saw the madness in his gaze, the hate and lust mixing into a poisonous cocktail of emotion as he trudged forward.

Penelope frantically tried to free her tail and run as Vernon continued towards her, but she lacked any fine control over her newly-found appendage, her fear starting to overwhelm her she pulled stronger and stronger until she felt a sudden contraction, followed quickly by the sound of an impact.

Penelope looked up quickly, just in time to watch Vernon tumble back, twitching slightly before he stopped moving completely. She cautiously stood, freeing her tail from the table's leg and glancing over at Vernon.

She watched as blood started to pool around his head, as it stained the carpet, she looked at the spine protruding from where his eye once was. She didn't need to look at her tail to know where it came from.

Penelope didn't know how long she watched Vernon's body for, waiting for something to happen, whether it was a sudden reanimation or some god striking her down for her murder. Nothing happened. She waited as seconds turned to minutes, minutes turning to hours, and still, nothing happened.

She waited as her apprehension turned to pride, then to disgust, to sorrow, then anger, then pride again all in a vicious turmoil of emotion. She waited as her feelings settled, as the blood browned on the carpet, as her anger turned back to pride.

And she walked out, never to return.


	2. Obligatory Time Skip

**A/N If you haven't guessed it already, last chapter Penelope killed Vernon. She didn't kill Petunia, or Dudley, just Vernon with a spine from her tail. Just thought I'd give you a heads up.**

_December 2003_

Penelope POV:

Penelope peered through the branches that concealed her, something was wrong.

Something was very wrong.

She could feel it in her tail, her eyes peering through the darkened night. She saw nothing wrong.

But her eyes had been deceived before. She gazed out straining her senses as she waited for something to happen. She saw nothing but the gentle breeze passing through the branches. She heard nothing but the gentle flow of the snowmelt. She smelled nothing but the pine in the forest around her.

By all rights it should be a good night; the stars shined, clear in the night sky. The moon was full, she was comfortable in the leather jacket she had stolen long ago.

It was all perfect, except for the feeling of foreboding that ruined it all. She had been staying in the area for several days before the feeling hit her, something powerful had entered the area, and the forest knew it, and if the forest knew it, she knew it.

So Penelope started her way towards the being that was causing this distress, leaping from tree to tree her claws and agility allowing her to travel swiftly through the treetops. She traveled until she reached the source of her distress, a castle. Well, not really a castle, it was more of a school if she was being honest, she had never gone inside but it was now obvious that if she wanted to resolve this… itch in her tail, she would have to enter the castle.

The castle itself was rather ominous, built with black stones it stood out in the clearing that it resided in. As she walked closer to the castle doors she started weaving Mist around her tail, claws, and eyes, a trick she learned from some friendly empousa she had met.

She had all but entered the building when she realized something: it was almost midnight, and no one would be awake. She sighed and retreated towards the woods, she found a nice pine and fastened her claws around its trunk as a precaution, she didn't really like falling out of trees.

Penelope laid her head down and slept, passing the night away.

The next morning came swiftly, and Penelope rose to greet it, as she woke up she did some stretches to make herself nice and limber before she jumped down to the ground. After making sure that the Mist still hid her less human parts, she once again walked towards the castle door, opening it and entering the building.

"You there! Girl! What were you doing outside!" A woman immediately accosted Penelope, looking at her critically as she stepped towards her. "I don't remember seeing you in any of my classes!"

"But Ms… Ms…"

"Ms. Gottschalk." The woman provided.

Penelope looked her in the eyes and snapped her fingers, manipulating the mist as she said: "You gave me permission to go outside for my morning run! And I know I'm a quiet person, but I wish you wouldn't say things like that." Penelope said, starting to tear up as Ms. Gottschalk's eyes glazed over, only to sharpen back on Penelope as she began to cry.

"Oh, I'm so sorry… umm… sorry I've quite forgotten your name."

"Penelope!" Penelope wailed, "You always forget it!" She continued, really hamming it up as Ms. Gottschalk began to panic.

"I'm sorry Penelope, you just looked so different! It looks like you've spent the night in the woods for crying out loud! Here come with me, and we'll get you cleaned up." She said, guiding Penelope towards the dorms as she sniffled, trudging along with the older woman, a smile crawling across her face.

'It's all too easy.'

* * *

At least it was. As soon as Ms. Gottschalk guided her to the girls' dorms she fled, striding quickly down the hall and leaving Penelope alone in the quiet hallway. So Penelope did the only thing she could, started breaking into a room.

As soon as she began though, she… smelled something amazing, it was subtle but as soon as she caught the scent it was simply overwhelming, it was earthy, like the ground after the rain, (petrichor) but it gave her other vibes that she didn't recognize, Penelope started tracking the scent, wondering how something could smell so… mysterious. She eventually followed the scent to one of the doors in the girl's dorms.

She stood there for a moment, simply taking in the scent as she considered how she was going to enter.

She decided to do it the easy way, jamming one of her currently invisible claws into the lock and twisting it, the door opened smoothly, revealing a pair of beds, each attached to one side of the wall one was empty, and one was occupied by a ball of black hair. She stalked towards the occupied bed, the scent of the girl laying in it overwhelming her as she sat on one side of the bed. Grabbing a strand of the girl's hair she brought it to her nose, breathing in deeply she felt euphoric, before quickly dropping the girl's hair.

"What in the Hades am I doing?" She muttered quietly, confusion starting to take over as she brushed her hands through the girl's hair, even as distracted as she was she took care not to hurt her with her claws as she teased the girl's knots out. She glanced towards the other end of the room, determining the lack of any personal items meant that the girl was the sole occupant, meaning there was plenty of room for Penelope to move in.

'Wait, where did moving-in come up?' Penelope thought, 'And why does this girl smell so good?' She wondered, teasing her claws through the girl's hair. The girl stirred slightly, shifting a little in her place before stopping. Penelope let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding in, finally calming down from her… episode. The girl still smelled like heaven, but she was able to shunt that aside for rational thought now.

Penelope stood quickly, not willing to be caught brushing the girl's hair as she woke up, she made her way to the bathroom and closed the door. She walked over to the sink and splashed her face with a little water, before taking a look at her reflection. She let the mist go and watched as her pupils turned to ovals, the green from her iris spreading across her sclera, creating a smooth gradient of greens, her tail appeared from behind her, popping into existence as she stretched.

Glancing back at the mirror she saw her tangled black hair, no matter what she did she was never able to un-nest her hair so she just let it grow as it wished, occasionally tying it into a braid if she had time. She saw the flakes of leaves and grass that littered her hair and clothes and decided she needed a shower.

She undressed quickly, stripping off her black leather jacket, then the green 'Save the Planet' shirt she wore beneath it. As she pulled it off her right arm she noticed her only major scar, a large snake bite she got from a basilisk that snuck up on her, she brushed a hand over it, feeling the slight ridge where it stood out from her pale skin before moving on.

Penelope stepped into the shower, appreciating the cold water that slowly turned warmer. She simply let the water wash over her before getting to work, scrubbing the filth from her body as she hummed a light tune. She moved on to her tail, which was oddly clean and started to sharpen her claws against one another, the one-inch protrusions didn't get any sharper, it was just a weird habit Penelope picked up somewhere. She stood there for a moment, before deciding to leave the shower she stood there for a moment, working up the resolve before she shut the water off and walked out, steam billowing out with her. She dried herself quickly and put her clothes back on, her tail passing through the illusive hole in her shirt, she decided to forgo the jacket and wrapped her long hair in a towel, before walking back into the room with the other girl, who still seemed to be asleep. She quickly reapplied the mist to herself and walked over to the girl's bedside.

She glanced at a clock that read 6:58 and decided that her new roommate should probably get up soon. She walked over to the girl quietly and shook her lightly, "Hey." She started softly, "You should probably get up."

"Go away mom," The girl mumbled, "I need more sleep."

Penelope giggled a little, before shaking the girl some more, "Get up sleepyhead, the sun is rising and you should be too."

"Nooooooo," The girl mumble-shouted.

"Yesssss," Penelope responded

There was silence for a moment, and Penelope feared that all her work was for naught, before suddenly the girl's head shot up, Penelope barely yanked her head back fast enough to avoid a collision. The girl's face was red as she met Penelope's eyes.

There was silence for a moment, the girl's embarrassed face glowing red as she processed her recent memories, before she got up and made a tactical retreat to the bathroom.

Penelope sat for a moment, slightly stunned by the girl's reaction before she started laughing softly, moving over to the other bed and laying back, listening as the other girl showered.

She waited for a moment, before putting her jacket back on and hugging herself slightly. She was still confused by the girl's scent but she decided that it was a question she could solve later.

Penelope waited on her new bed, her mind wandering from place to place, never really staying on one topic as she listened to the other girl getting ready for the day. As she heard her moving towards the bathroom door Penelope stood up to meet her.

The door opened, revealing the girl. She too wore a towel in her long black hair as she stood there, waiting for something to happen.

Penelope decided to make this easier for her.

"Hi! I'm Penelope and I'll be your new roommate!"

The girl stood there, stock-still for a few moments. Penelope started to worry a little, she stepped towards the girl, only for her to step back. Penelope followed that step with another, before wrapping the girl in a hug. The girl, if possible became even more rigid in Penelope's arms. Penelope started to worry, she hadn't interacted with many people in the past couple of months, but she was pretty sure that this 'hug' was a standard greeting. Reassured Penelope continued the hug, waiting for a response from the other girl before continuing. She waited. And waited. And waited as the other girl seemed paralyzed in her arms.

"Are you okay?" Penelope asked softly, panicking slightly as the girl failed to respond. Penelope then did the only thing she could, she picked the girl up, grabbing her legs and shoulders as she had seen others do many times she brought the now squirming girl to her new bed and set her down.

"Can you breathe?" Penelope asked, receiving a nod in response.

"Is your heart beating?" Penelope continued, receiving another, more startled nod.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Penelope asked, holding up three of her fingers.

"Three."

"Are you okay?" Penelope asked, repeating her question from earlier.

"No."

"Are you injured?"

"No."

"Are you in pain?"

"No."

"Can you move?"

"Yes?"

"Then why didn't you return my hug?" Penelope pouted.

"... What?"

"That's what it's called right? The Hug? A standard greeting between peers?"

"..."

"..."

"Sure…"

"Yes! I knew it!" Penelope cheered, her happiness apparent.

The girl smiled slightly at Penelope's happiness, and Penelope smiled right back. The two sat there for a moment before the other girl started to speak.

"So… Penelope right?"

"That's me!"

"And you said that you were my new roommate?"

"I did!"

"Okay." The girl said, "I'm Bianca, I guess I'll be your roommate from now on."

"It's nice to meet you Bianca!" Penelope said, glee in her voice as she successfully made her first friend.

"It's nice to meet you too… So when did you get here?"

"Last night."

"Why didn't I meet you last night then?"

"I got here pretty late."

"Then where did you sleep?"

"Outside?"

"Outside?!"

"Yeah, why?"

"Are you crazy?! It's winter, it's like negative twenty or something out there!"

"Come on Bianca it wasn't that cold, it was like, maybe negative five."

"That's still like freezing!"

"No, it was below freezing."

"Ugh!" Bianca cried, flopping down onto the bed.

"Bianca? Are you feeling okay?" Penelope asked, worry evident in her tone.

"Yes! I'm fine!" Bianca replied shortly.

"You don't sound fine," Penelope said softly.

"I'm fine Penny!" Bianca said, sitting back up.

"Penny?" 'Penny' questioned, her face scrunching up in confusion.

"You don't like it?" Bianca asked, disappointed.

"Nope," Penelope responded, before tackling Bianca in a hug. "I love it!"

*Cough* *Cough* "Good, I'm glad." Bianca responded, the wind knocked out of her by Penelope's sudden embrace.

"Now let's go! I want to see what this 'school' is like!" Penelope said excitedly, not having been to a school in around five years.

"Sure sure, let's go," Bianca said, not nearly as excited as Penelope.

They left the room and started walking down the hallway as Bianca guided Penelope to the cafeteria. As they walked through the ominous halls Penelope remembered the reason she came to the school in the first place.

"Hey, Bianca… has anything weird happened recently?" Penelope asked cautiously, keeping an eye on her surroundings as she walked with Bianca.

"Like what?" Bianca asked, a little startled by the seemingly random question.

"I don't know, like something that made you feel this deep sense of foreboding, a little anxiety and distress, and a heap of discomfort that poisoned your original sense of well-being with one of upcoming change?" Penelope asked seriously, a frown overtaking her looks as she considered the feeling that had hit her late last night.

"Yup." Bianca said, popping the 'p.'

"Really?! What?!"

"You," Bianca said, poking Penelope's arm, being surprised by its firmness.

"Oh." Penelope said dejectedly, "I'm sorry." She continued, pouting a bit at the thought of causing Bianca that level of distress.

Bianca would never admit it, but she thought that Penelope's pout was rather cute.

"It's okay," Bianca replied, "You were just a little bit… too excited for my tastes this morning."

"I just couldn't help it." Penelope claimed, "You just smelled so good!"

"Umm… Thanks?" Bianca said, unsure of how to reply.

They finally reached the cafeteria, a large open room that failed to shake off the darkened theme of the rest of the castle. It was clean enough and had plenty of inspirational posters hanging along the walls, their color standing out against the blackened stone the castle was built from.

The pair grabbed plates from one end and started piling food on from the buffet styled tables, the cafeteria staff giving them a small smile as they kept an eye on the food.

Penelope piled her plate with some of the edible looking fruits, staying away from the bananas because of their tough skin, and oranges because they were so sour. She then added some of the cooked meats they provided, adding a small pile of sausage and bacon to her colorful plate.

Bianca looked over at her new friend's plate and sighed, adding some vegetables to the pair of plates she had before her.

Penelope looked over to Bianca wide-eyed, "That's a lot of food Bianca, I'm honestly impressed." She said, eying Bianca's rather thin frame.

Bianca colored slightly, "It's for my brother, there's no way I could eat this much by myself." She said, adding some waffles to the plates in front of her.

"Oh, you have a brother?" Penelope asked, unsure of what to do with this information.

"Yeah…"

"That's… good?"

Bianca stood there for a moment before responding, "Yeah, I guess it is." She said, clearly uncertain.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Penelope asked, confusion coloring her face as she thought about it.

"He can just be a bit of a handful sometimes."

"Oh, okay."

Silence filled the air for a moment as they began to eat, Penelope attacking her pile viciously while Bianca took a more subdued approach.

That silence was soon broken by a slow dragging of feet from behind them, a newcomer shuffling forward before plopping down in a chair.

"Morning Bianca."

"Good morning Nico, how did you sleep?"

"Fine," Nico said, before finally noticing the newcomer, "Who's this?"

"My new roommate, Penelope," Bianca replied, gesturing towards Penelope as she spoke, before dragging a comb (which Penelope would swear came from thin air) through Nico's hair.

"Nice to meet you Nico," Penelope said, a smile growing on her face as she watched Bianca fuss over Nico's hair.

"Stop it sis! It's fine!" Nico said, clearly embarrassed.

"It is now," Bianca said, setting the comb down as she continued her meal, releasing an air of smugness.

"So… Nico is it?" Penelope asked, continuing at Nico's nod, "What are those cards you're holding?"

As soon as she asked the question Nico lit up, while Bianca glared at her a little.

"You don't know what Mythomagic is?!" He cried, raging about this great injustice. "It's the best card game in the world! The cards are all based on Greek myths, and every single one is awesome!" He dug around in his deck looking for a card, before pulling out the manticore, "The Manticore is awesome right?"

Penelope glanced at the card, a manticore looked back at her, roaring with ferocious might as she analyzed it.

"Yup," Penelope said smugly, "The Manticore is awesome."

"Penelope don't encourage him! Nico put those cards away! I told you to leave them in your room!" Bianca scolded, looking at both of them scathingly.

"But Bianca, we don't have class today! What are we going to do if we're bored and can't play Mythomagic?" Nico cried dramatically, despair entering his voice.

"No classes? Why not?" Penelope asked bewildered.

"... We're on winter break Penny, most people went back home already, including my roomma- well my former roommate Samantha." Bianca said, watching Penelope's confused expression calm down. "I am kind of curious about why your parents would send you here right now."

Penelope collected herself for a moment before responding, "I was just in the area, and it kind of worked out." She said vaguely, before suddenly turning as she noticed a person standing on the other side of the room. "Who's that?"

Bianca glanced towards where Penelope was looking, her eyes narrowing into a slight glare at the object of her attention, "That's Dr. Thorn, he's the vice-principal..."

Penelope squinted at this 'Dr. Thorn,' he was tall, taller than anyone around him as he practically towered over the middle school students, his heterochromatic eyes panning across the crowd before they met Penelope's, a chill went down her spine as their eyes met, the man's gaze sharpening slightly before moving on.

Penelope couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something… off about how Thorn looked. Like she was missing something, dismissing it she moved on, listening to the sibling's banter as she finished her breakfast.

"So Penelope," Bianca started, including her in the conversation, "What do you want to do today?"

Penelope assumed that practicing her spine-throwing wasn't an option, and thought for a moment about what 'normal' activities she knew… "Do you want to go out for a run?" She asked, grasping at straws.

The siblings looked at her, their black eyes telling her 'no' as she shrunk back slightly.

"I don't know then, what do you guys want to do?"

"Mythoma-"

"No!" Bianca cut Nico off quickly, "Mythomagic is not a three-player game, and even if it was I'm sure Penny wouldn't want to play it."

Nico looked over at Penelope who refused to meet his eyes.

"Fine then, what do you think we should do Bianca?" He asked, shuffling his cards a little more.

"... Let's just go to the library, there should be some board games and stuff there." Bianca said, sighing slightly at the two, who displayed little enthusiasm at the prospect of spending the day in the library.

"Hmm…" Penelope thought for a moment, before realizing the perfect activity, "Okay, I haven't played a 'board game' before."

Bianca and Nico looked at each other before Bianca shook her head slightly, "Let's just go."

The trio walked out, failing to notice Dr. Thorn's gaze following them out the cafeteria doors.


	3. A Pleasant Family Reunion!

**Disclaimer: _I, Twilit Bakery (My real name) do henceforth declare that I own neither Percy Jackson and the Olympians (or the related titles) nor Harry Potter, I do not own any characters that you recognize, I do not own any of the references that I make, I only own the surface that I write this on, and an accumulating mound of debt from my college life. _**

**Now that the boring part of this is over with, I hope you take some of your time after reading this to review! I am not perfect, and have a rather poor memory so if you think I messed something up feel free to leave a review about it, if you have any suggestions I would appreciate them!**

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_Later that day_

Bianca POV

Bianca thought Penny was a little weird.

She showed up this morning without any luggage, and proceeded to invade Bianca's personal space on multiple occasions, shaking her awake in the morning and then hugging her right out of the shower, she continued this pattern through the day, linking arms and holding hands with Bianca as they walked, sitting a little closer than normal when they sat down, and playing with her hair when she had nothing else to do. It made Bianca feel a little uncomfortable, but she didn't say anything about it as it didn't look like Penny was doing it intentionally.

It was a little weird, but Bianca just assumed she was a 'touchy' person. She seemed pretty harmless… an emphasis on seemed. It was rather strange, but Bianca felt like she was missing something like there was a piece of the puzzle that she couldn't see.

So she started watching Penny a little more closely. She noticed little things at first, how Penny moved almost silently, unintentionally startling Bianca a couple of times. Penny was also very strong, not like superhuman levels of strength, but there were a couple of moments through the day where Penny thoughtlessly picked her up, (like when she won Sorry!) and while Bianca knew she was pretty light, she wasn't that light. Bianca also noticed how she brushed her nails together when she thought, and that she seemed to twitch slightly when someone passed close behind her. This was all a little weird, but it was ultimately topped by the final fact. Penny seemed to like how she smelled… a lot. She had mentioned it offhandedly before, but it was very different experiencing it firsthand. Bianca couldn't smell anything herself, but apparently, Penny could because every chance she got she would hug Bianca, inhaling deeply as she did. It was weird and made Bianca a little uncomfortable, but it was well worth it to see the cute smile that crawled across Penny's face afterward.

The strangest thing about today though had to be the looks that Dr. Thorn gave them. Whenever they changed locations, (like this morning, when they moved from the library to the cafeteria for lunch) Dr. Thorn followed them, not closely behind or anything too obvious, but he seemed to follow them throughout the day, whenever Bianca looked over at him he always seemed to be doing something else, but she knew that he was following them, which filled her with anxiety. The weirdest thing was how he looked at Penny like he was confused by her presence.

But if you ignored that small fact the day went pretty well, Penny was a fun person, even if she confused Bianca a lot. Nico evidently shared her opinion, quickly becoming more comfortable with Penny's presence as they spent time together.

Right now they were back in the library, teaching Penny how to play Monopoly, she caught on fast, but not fast enough as Bianca was gaining properties at a rapid pace, Nico not far behind.

They had been playing for a while; Bianca and Nico dominating the economy as Penny struggled to hang on with her few properties when the librarian came over. "You kids best clean up if you're going to be going to be getting to the dance on time."

"What dance?" Three voices rang in confusion, each glancing towards the other before looking back at the older woman.

"The winter dance of course! Dr. Thorn made an announcement about it this morning." The librarian said, her eyes glazing over slightly as she spoke.

Bianca watched as Penny narrowed her eyes slightly, before snapping her fingers "Dr. Thorn gave us permission to skip the dance." She said, blatantly lying to her.

To Bianca's surprise, the librarian accepted Penny's statement, walking back to her desk and continuing her work.

Penny turned back to the game, not noticing the siblings' looks at her as she took her turn.

"Penny," Bianca asked cautiously, "What was that?"

"Yeah, I don't remember talking to Dr. Thorn today." Nico helpfully chimed in.

Penny looked at them both in surprise, narrowing her eyes slightly in thought.

They watched her for a little while before Penelope snapped her fingers again, saying: "You guys don't remember? We talked to Dr. Thorn during breakfast."

Bianca felt a fog drift over her mind before she shook it off, her black eyes narrowed at Penny, who started to sweat a little.

"Penny… Did you just try to… hypnotize us?" Bianca asked incredulously, glancing over at Nico who was still shaking off his confusion.

Penelope started muttering under her breath, as her eyes darted between Bianca and Nico quickly.

"Clear-sighted? No, can't see through mist… Monsters? No, that's silly… Hmm, that leaves Demigods…" She trailed off her eyes glazing slightly in thought.

"Penny, are you feeling okay?" Nico said, surprised by the serious look on Penny's face.

"Hm? Oh yeah, I'm alright, just thinking." Penny replied, her eyes looking at the pair seriously as she asked: "What do you two know about greek mythology?"

Bianca was a little confused by the sudden question, while Nico jumped a couple of energy levels.

"You mean like Zeus, and Hades, and Hercu-?"

"Quiet!" Penny whisper-yelled, clapping a hand on Nico's mouth as thunder rumbled softly in the distance. "Gods how could I have been so foolish!"

'Gods' Bianca noticed idly, watching as Penny inhaled deeply, her eyes flaring as she did so.

"Okay, we need to start moving now. Here's what we're going to do," Penny said, taking a few calming breaths. "I need you two to come with me, we're going to be packing quickly, and leaving." She said, pulling Bianca and Nico from their seats as she pulled them towards the girls' dorms. Muttering something about their 'scent' the whole way.

"What?! Penny, what's going on with you?!" Bianca asked, concerned with the fearful look in Penny's eyes.

"Let's get your stuff ready to go, then I'll explain this, but we need to be ready to go before then alright?" Penny replied, keeping a hand on the siblings as they moved towards Bianca's room. Bianca packed quickly in silence, gathering her few belongings in a bag before they started towards Nico's room.

* * *

Bianca watched as Penny sat on Nico's bed taking a few breaths to calm herself. Bianca stepped closer to her and sat down, hugging her slightly as Penny calmed down.

"Okay, so we're here, can you explain what's going on now?" Bianca asked softly, Nico sitting on Penny's other side, but not as close.

"Okay… umm… where to start…" Penny said, her mind working quickly as she thought.

"The beginning is always a good idea," Nico said jokingly, clearly worried about Penny's uncharacteristic seriousness.

"The beginning… okay." Penny breathed, her voice trailing off a little before strengthening. "Greek gods are real, all those myths about the gods, the monsters and everything in between? It's all real, and I think you two are demigods." She said, unsure of how to continue.

"Wait-wait-wait," Bianca said quickly, "What? Are you serious? There's no way any of that is true if it was, why haven't we heard about it before?"

"There's this… veil, I guess called the Mist, that hides most of mythology from people's eyes, you can only really see through it if you are already aware that it exists." Penny rushed out, hugging Bianca tightly as she spoke, "Gods, this isn't how I imagined this day going…"

Nico spoke up from his place on Penny's left, "You mean like Mythomagic? Sweet! What are the gods like? Does Zeus really throw lightning? Wait… didn't he marry his sister? If that's true that's just disgusting." He declared, his face scrunching up at the thought.

Thunder boomed through the clear sky as Penny glared a little at Nico. "Okay first, don't name-drop any of the gods… or the monsters… actually just don't say the name of anything in greek mythology unless you are 100% sure it's on your side, and let's just say that the big guy? King of the gods and all? He's definitely not on your side." She looked Nico in the eyes, seeing his obvious skepticism she continued, "Seriously, names have power and saying the name of someone like that is like a little itch in the back of their mind, they know where you are and the gist of what you said. Did you hear that thunder?" She asked, seeing Nico nod his head. "That was him acknowledging the fact that you said his name."

Nico's eyes widened in awe, opening his mouth before Penny's glare cut him off.

"Don't say it again Nico! It's bad enough when you aren't aware that you're invoking a major deity, don't poke at him unless you are prepared for the consequences." She finished warningly, stopping her glare at Nico's reluctant nod.

"Anyways… where was I?" Penny asked Bianca, her right arm curled around her protectively.

"You were saying something about the mist?" Bianca said hesitantly, unsure of how she should be taking all of this.

"Ah yes, the mist hides monsters and most supernatural things from the eyes of mortals, occasionally there are people who can see through it, but that doesn't really matter. The main thing that you two need to know is that oftentimes, gods get… bored of managing their domains, and decide to 'visit' the mortal world, most these visits are fairly mundane, but occasionally a mortal succeeds in catching a god's eye. Sometimes these unions result in a child, a demigod. That's what you two are. Demigods."

"That's so cool!" Nico shouted, "What's special about being a demigod? Are we super strong? Super fast? Immortal?"

"It depends…" Penny said, "Demigods, in general, tend to have ADHD and dyslexia, there was some reason for it but I can't remember right now. Some stronger cases could manifest portions of their parent's domains; controlling lightning, using magic, controlling plants are all examples of some abilities some demigods have."

"What powers will we have then?" Nico asked excitedly.

"No idea, unless you know who your godly parent is there isn't any way to tell other than doing it." Penelope thought for a moment, "I know there is a son of Poseidon around somewhere who can do stuff like breathe in, and control water."

"So whose kid are you then? If you know all of this you're a demigod right?" Nico continued, almost bouncing in his seat.

"Umm… sure..." Penny said cautiously, "I'll show you who my mythical parent is if you promise not to panic."

"Okay! How?" Nico questioned.

"Here, hand me your Mythomagic deck," Penny said, grabbing the deck when Nico offered it and searching through it, before pulling out a card and showing it to Nico.

"The Manti-"

Penny quickly clapped her hand over his mouth again, "Don't say its name!"

Bianca glanced at the card, 'The Manticore' it read, showing a ferocious beast with the body of a lion, the head of a man, and the tail of a scorpion.

"But Penny… this one isn't a god is it?" Bianca asked cautiously, tensing at Penny's side.

"Yeah… it isn't." Penny said softly.

"You aren't going to eat us or something right?" Nico asked cautiously.

Penny let out a barking laugh, before sighing softly. "Nico, if I wanted to eat you you'd be eaten. Besides…" She paused, looking Nico over before licking her lips, "We monsters like to fatten you demigods up first. Not enough meat on your bones yet."

Nico recoiled slightly, and Penny started to laugh at his panic-stricken face.

Bianca hit Penny on the shoulder, before rubbing her hand in slight pain. "Don't do that!" She ordered, calming down a little as Penny continued to laugh.

The three sat there in silence for a moment, before Bianca asked: "So why did you ask us to pack up?"

Penny sighed again before responding, "Demigods… well, they aren't safe in this world."

"Why not?" Nico asked, bouncing back from his earlier startling.

"Well… monsters kind of… like to eat you?" Penny hesitantly said, her grip on Bianca tightening a little.

"So you are going to eat us!" Nico declared wielding the bag with his stuff like a shield, "Back foul beast!"

"No Nico Penny isn't going to eat us," Bianca stated resolutely, before looking Penny in the eyes, "Right Penny?"

"Of course not! But most monsters… well, they find the taste of demigods to be a delicacy, most demigods don't make it to adulthood because of this." Penny revealed, the siblings' eyes widening at that.

"What are we supposed to do then? Wait to die?" Bianca asked rhetorically, a little annoyed that her life expectancy had been reduced by more than seventy-five percent.

"No, there's… a place in New York that protects demigods, trains them." Penny said, uncertain how she should describe 'Camp Half-Blood.'

"Is that where we are going?" Bianca demanded, "To some camp in New York?"

"Yeah… unless you have a better idea?" Penny said resolutely.

"What's the place called?" Nico asked, returning to his chipper state.

"Camp Half-Blood, I think it's on Long Island or something," Penny said, unsure of its exact location.

Bianca picked up on Penny's uncertainty, asking: "You haven't been there before?"

"No, why would I have?"

"Because it's safe?"

Penny laughed a little again, "Safe for demigods maybe, last I heard there's a barrier of some sort keeping monsters away."

"Then what are you going to do Penny?" Nico asked quickly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well if you can't be at Camp Half-Blood with us, where are you going to go after you bring us there?"

"... The woods?" Penny said, not quite sure what Nico was asking.

"The woods?!" Bianca demanded, her loud voice causing Penny to flinch slightly, "Why wouldn't you stay there with us?"

Penny looked at Bianca drily, "'Cause I'm a monster." She stated, "I probably couldn't make it past the barrier. Besides," she continued, glancing towards the window as she finished, "It wouldn't be safe for me there."

"Why not? If it's safe for us why wouldn't it be for you?"

"I'm a monster Bianca, gods don't tend to want monsters near their children, and those children aren't any more likely to want me there either." She said assertively, "Besides, it's nice out in the wild, nobody knows about me so I tend to be rather safe."

"That's stupid," Nico declared, "Why don't we just stay with you?"

"That wouldn't be the best idea… I didn't really understand what a demigod scent was until I met you guys… let's just say that it wouldn't be safe for any of us."

"What do you mean by 'demigod scent?'" Bianca asked, using her fingers as quotation marks.

"Well, you guys smell… a lot. I hadn't met a demigod before today, but I was told that the more distinctive the scent, the more powerful the demigod, I'm honestly surprised that you two haven't encountered a monster yet." Penny finished thoughtfully.

"What do we smell like?" Nico asked, sniffing his armpit as he did so.

Penny blushed a little before breathing in deeply, almost tasting the scent on her tongue as she smelled Bianca.

"Like the ground right after it rains, like… metal? Maybe gold? And…" Penny paused hesitantly before continuing, "And Death."

"Death, what does death smell like?" Bianca asked, confused at Penny's description of her scent.

"It's hard to describe?" Penny replied. "It's just a feeling I get."

Penny looked outside quickly, paling at the slowly setting sun. "We should probably start moving, we can probably get to the city by nightfall if we move swiftly."

"Wait, if you're the daughter of the… Well the lion thing, what are your abilities?" Nico asked curiously.

"Well… it's less of an ability thing, and more of an appearance thing?" Penelope said cautiously.

"Really? But you look normal." Nico claimed.

"Yeah, I use the mist to hide the less human parts of me when I interact with people, you never know when you'll meet other monsters." She finished, shrugging.

"Why would that matter?" Nico asked, confused.

"Most monsters aren't exactly friendly, most are sentient to different degrees, but some like hellhounds attack just about anything they can. The ones that Hades controls are the worst."

"Why?"

"Hades basically gives monsters who work for him a deal, if they listen to his orders then he'll let them re-form faster. He controls an army of monsters, although apparently someone else is starting to build an army as well…" Penny trailed off, thinking about her last few talks with other monsters.

"Who?" Nico asked, "And why would they want an army of monsters?"

"Don't know, don't really care, as long as they leave me alone it's not my problem," Penny stated casually.

Bianca rejoined the conversation, exiting her thoughts and asking: "Could you show us what you really look like then?"

"I guess…" Penny said uncertainly, "Just… don't panic alright?"

Receiving a nod from the two, she stood, and walked to the other bed, stopping in front of it and undoing her illusion and hearing the gasp as she turned around, her cat-like eyes focusing on Bianca as Penny looked at her with unease.

Bianca stared into Penny's vibrant green eyes, the color so much sharper without the illusion. She stood there for a moment, and watched as Penny's eyes dilated slightly, in… fear? Bianca realized that Penny was afraid of her reaction and stepped closer to her, wrapping her friend in a hug to assure her.

Nico had much fewer reservations, immediately shooting off a chain of questions, moving around to Penny's back as he did so.

"That's so cool! Why are your eyes like that? How long are your claws? Can you shoot spines with your tail? How strong are you? How long is your tail?" He stopped for a moment, poking her scorpion-like tail as she thought.

"My eyes were something on my mom's side mixing with my dad's. My claws were about an inch long last I checked, but they might have grown. Yes, I can throw spines, not shoot them. I don't really know how strong I am, but I could pick you both up easily. I don't know how long my tail is, I can't check on my own." She finished thoughtfully, flexing her tail a little as she thought.

Penny picked them both up to demonstrate, one in each arm as she lifted them both, straining slightly. "Or not, I guess I overestimated myself."

She set them both down and she saw Nico preparing another flurry of questions. She looked outside again at the sun that was slowly approaching the horizon. "We need to start moving, you can ask more questions on the way." She decided, re-applying her mist illusion as she spoke.

Bianca felt a little disappointed when Penny's eyes changed back but quickly agreed, grabbing her bag and tossing Nico his.

"Let's go!" Nico cried, excited for the approaching journey.

Bianca led them through the door, and towards the school's main entrance when a sudden breeze seemed to pass through the hallway, Penny flinched a little bit and opened her mouth to speak when they heard a voice come from around the corner.

"_Oh, but we're not visitors, sir," The girl said. "We go to school here. You remember: I'm Thalia. And this is Annabeth and Percy. We're in the eighth grade."_

Penny pulled Bianca back, hissing quietly. "Stop! That girl is using the mist."

They listened as the man, Dr. Thorn and the teacher Ms. Gottschalk conversed a bit before another boy joined the conversation.

"That one," Penny hissed, "He's not human."

"Who? Dr. Thorn or Grover?" Bianca asked, recognizing the other boy as a recent transfer.

"Both." She said resolutely, "Thorn is something dangerous, powerful. The boy - Grover you said? He's something different. The others smell different too. I can't tell what any of them are! Their scents just kind of combine." Penny whispered desperately. "Gods why do they all have to be here now."

The conversation ended - Bianca wasn't paying them too much attention - but she heard something about punch? They heard footsteps approaching quickly, the newcomers talking about something as they approached their position.

"What should we do Penny?"

Penny shushed Bianca as the others came close enough for them to hear their conversation.

"_Two half-bloods? Here?" The girl from before asked, amazed._

"_A brother and a sister, they're ten and twelve. I don't know their parentage, but they're strong. We're running out of time, though. I need help."_ The boy said before stopping suddenly. "Wait, do you smell that?" He asked.

Bianca felt Penny tense beside her as she cursed lightly, "Di immortales! It's a satyr, that must mean that the others are demigods." She said, fear entering her tone.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Nico whispered back.

"Oh. Right." Penny replied sheepishly, calming down a little. "You guys are demigods too so it should be fine, let's go meet them I guess." She said, taking a few deep breaths as she led them around the corner.

Apparently, Bianca had missed something, because when the trio turned the corner they were met with a loud shout, "That one! The one in leather! She's a monster!" Bianca heard Grover - who Penny identified as a satyr shout, causing the demigods to leap into action, one - the girl pulling out a can of… mace? Which extended into a large spear, and another - the boy pulling out a pen from his pocket, before pulling the cap off and turning it into a sword. The last girl pulled a knife from… her sleeve? The two groups waited for a moment, Bianca, Nico and Penny in surprise, and the other group in… preparation, before they started running towards them, the sword boy leading a charge.

Bianca and Nico stepped back in fear, while Penny unfroze, her eyes darting across each of the combatants as she leaped into action.

Bianca watched amazed as Penny leaped into the air, crashing her claws into the stone bricks as she climbed, growling in pain at each impact before suddenly turning, the air behind her distorting as she started throwing spines, the spines appearing from behind her, where Bianca knew her tail to be.

She watched as the spines hit each of the armed demigods with unerring accuracy, each spine nailing the demigod it hit to the ground. The spines looked like narrow handle-less daggers, each sharp and coated in some kind of fluid. A pair hit the spear girl on her right arm, one hitting the shoulder and the other striking farther below, on her lower arm, forcing the girl to drop her spear as she let loose a shout of pain, her body now pinned to the ground. A third spine hit the sword boy in a similar location, pinning his arm to the stone floor as he let loose a shout. Curiously the knife girl was nowhere to be found, maybe she ran away?

Bianca watched as Penny cautiously scanned her surroundings before a bronze knife appeared out of thin air, thrown at Penny's chest.

"Penny! Watch out!" Bianca cried quickly, but as it turned out her warning was unneeded, Penny caught the knife. She caught a knife, out of mid-air. Bianca was very impressed, the confrontation had ended in less than a minute, and Penny didn't even look tired.

"Nice job Penny!" Nico shouted as Penny jumped to the ground, raising his hand for a high-five.

"All in a day's work." She claimed, meeting Nico's hand with her own, and offering him the dagger, "You want a souvenir?"

Bianca quickly reached out, "I think not! Nico's too young to be handling weapons like that!" She said, punching Penny lightly on the shoulder, "And you too! Reckless! We could have just talked it out, but now you just crippled those poor demigods for life! We have to get them to the hospital fast!"

"Nah, I've been told demigods are made of sterner stuff, this dracaena I met once claimed that she fought a demigod who lost all of his limbs in a battle, and claimed that 'It's just a flesh wound.'" Penny finished, air quoting the last bit.

"But still, they'll have to get it treated won't they?" Bianca asked, appeased slightly but still worried.

"It'll be okay Bianca," Penny said, pulling her in for a hug. "There's this… I guess magic food of some sort that demigods like to use, I think it's called ambrosia? It helps a lot with healing, even with my poison I'm pretty sure they'll be right as rain in an hour tops."

"Poison?!" Bianca asked suddenly, pushing away from Penny's warm hug, "What poison?"

"Ya know, my tail? It looks like a scorpion's tail for a reason, silly." Penny teased, before turning back towards the demigod's group.

"Hey satyr!" She called, the satyr's panic-filled eyes meeting her own, "You got some ambrosia?"

The satyr nodded numbly, before walking forward and pulling some slightly squashed golden squares out of his pocket. He approached the demigods who were standing up, having pulled the spines that anchored them to the ground, out. He offered each of them a piece and they ate it gratefully, taking it with their left hands, their right still disabled.

"So we cool? Or will I have to finish the job?" Penny asked, growling slightly as her eyes flared.

"No, no we're cool, we're cool." The satyr said quickly, raising his arms in surrender.

"Then do you mind telling invisi-girl to become visible again, unless I have to send a couple of spines into her too." Penny threatened, her eyes darting around as she watched for any movement.

"No!" Sword-boy cried, "Annabeth, it looks like we're not going to fight, you can take the hat off."

Bianca wondered what that meant before she heard a scoff from somewhere in front of her, a blonde-haired girl appeared and was putting a NY Yankees baseball cap into her pocket.

"Give me my knife." The blonde girl demanded, her grey eyes shining in anger as she looked at Nico.

"What's the magic word?" Nico sang lightly, teasing the blonde-haired girl.

"Give me my knife, now." The blond declared, before stepping back as Penny glared.

"I don't know, Penny said it was a souvenir." He stated.

"It's my knife."

"No, you gave it to Penny."

"I threw it at Penny, idiot."

"How was I supposed to know that, it was so slow that Penny caught it after all," Nico said sarcastically, causing the sword-boy and spear-girl to crack up a little.

"I'll show you slow you little-"

"Nico," Bianca cut in, "Just give her the knife."

"Bianca! How could you betray me like this!" Nico cried dramatically.

"I just want to get this over with, do you know how to use a knife?"

"No, but if blondie here uses it how hard could it be?"

"Shut up you brat!" 'Blondie' cut in.

"Don't call my brother a brat!" Bianca said sharply, glaring daggers at the blonde girl. "Nico, give the girl her knife so that we can get moving."

"But Biancaaaa-"

"No Nico! I'm sure that we can get you a sword or something at the camp, does that sound good?" Bianca asked, sighing in relief as Nico tossed the knife towards the blonde girl, who scooped down to pick it up.

"Now I don't have a souvenir!" Nico said, pouting at this predicament before a spine shot down right next to him.

"Here Nico, you can have one of my spines, just make sure none of that clear stuff gets in your eyes or mouth 'kay," Penny said, as Nico pulled it out from where it sunk into the stone.

"There!" Nico exclaimed as he worked it out of the floor. "I dub thee Excalibur!" He said, putting 'Excalibur' in one of his pockets.

The demigod trio and Grover had grouped up, whispering to each other, occasionally stealing glances at Penny and the di Angelo siblings.

Bianca heard something about a camp, and someone named 'Tyson' before cutting in. "So are you going to take us to this camp of yours or what?"

The demigods looked a little startled by her sudden input before Grover asked: "You know about camp already? How?"

Bianca pointed her thumb at Penny, who smiled and waved, causing Grover to flinch slightly, which in turn caused Penny's smile to grow wider. "This one here already explained this stuff to us, we were about to make our ways there when we ran into you."

"A monster? Explained to you guys what you were, and where the camp was?" Grover blurted, before putting a hand over his mouth.

"Wow, I heard it was bad, but seeing it in person is even worse!" Penny said suddenly, drawing everyone's attention.

"What?" Sword-boy asked, clearly confused.

"Your blatant racism. I'd been told by some empousa that demigods were the most violently racist group in the mythological world, and they were right!" Penny claimed, tossing her hands in the air dramatically.

"What?! We're not racist!" Sword-boy protested.

"Yes you are, you attacked me before I could get a word out! I even look normal, you were only judging me by my scent!" Penny wailed, her voice echoing through the hall.

Bianca started laughing a little at their expressions; sword-boy's panicked expression, blonde and spear-girls' looks of amusement, and Grover's appalled glance at Penny.

Penny turned back to face her, smirking slightly. "What's so funny Bianca?" She said growling teasingly, "Am I going to have to deal with another racist demigod?" She continued, tensing slightly as Bianca started to pale.

"No, stay back foul beast!" Bianca cried, backing away quickly, but not fast enough as Penny leaped towards her, grabbing her by the waist and hoisting her up, each failing to notice the demigods tense behind her.

"Stop it, Penny! Put me down!" Bianca yelped, laughing as Penny spun her around before complying.

Bianca looked into Penny's vibrant green eyes, blushing slightly under Penny's joyful gaze.

"So… are you guys just going to stand there?" Nico asked drily, glancing over back towards the other group who had started to approach them.

Penny glanced back at the demigods, tensing slightly at their sudden proximity before relaxing again, turning to face the demigods and satyr.

"So… You guys are here for Bianca and Nico right?" Penny asked casually, stretching a little as she spoke.

"Yep," Sword-boy said, popping the 'p,' "Why are you here?"

"I was just kind of… around." Penny said vaguely.

"Around? What is that supposed to mean? And What are you anyway?" The blonde girl asked rudely, glaring at Penny.

"I wasn't aware that I was obliged to answer your questions." Penny stated sarcastically before bowing deep, "Forgive me my lady for my transgressions."

The blonde girl growled a little and was about to speak when the spear-girl cut her off.

"Hey, I'm Thalia, that's Percy-" Sword-boy waved, "And you're currently mocking Annabeth," she continued gesturing towards the blonde girl. "We are here to bring Bianca and Nico to camp."

"Really! That's neat! Penny said that she was going to take us there, but now we can all go together!" Nico said excitedly.

"We're not going to take a monster to camp!" Annabeth declared, glaring at Nico.

"Why not? She seems friendly enough." Percy said, flinching slightly as Annabeth's glare turned towards him.

"She's a monster! She's probably only acting nice to make us lower our guards! The moment she gets into camp she'll probably start slaughtering demigods left and right!" Annabeth raged, "We should just kill her and be done with it!"

"Because that worked out so well the first time." Thalia drawled, meeting Annabeth's eyes. "If she wanted to kill us we'd be dead Annie."

"And besides, I don't want to go to your camp in the first place." Penny declared from her place next to the siblings, "I'm pretty sure I can't even enter it because of that tree-barrier-thing right? Talico's tree or something?"

"Thalia's tree," Percy corrected, smirking slightly as he continued, "And here's tree girl right now!" He said, gesturing towards Thalia.

Penny squinted at Thalia for a moment before declaring, "It looks like you got better, did Zeus un-tree you or something?"

"Something like that," Thalia responded drily. "So are we going to get going or what? I'd prefer not to stay in this school any longer than we have to."

"Yeah," Grover piped up, "And Dr. Thorn is still around too, so keep an eye out for him."

"Right. Dr. Thorn." Penny said, frowning at the thought of the tall man, "Best we keep away from him."

"Why?" Percy asked suddenly, "Do you know what he is?"

"Nope, no idea." Penny replied, "Just that he's old and powerful, which is good enough reason in my book."

"So what kind of monster are you?" Percy asked, trying to fill the silence.

"Well I'm half-monster, so I guess that makes me a half-blood too," Penny said casually, starting to walk towards the exit.

"Half monster?" Percy asked, "I didn't know those existed!"

"Yeah, well monsters get horny too, we're just a lot rarer 'cause most beings try to kill us… and there are only a couple of monsters with humanoid forms." Penny said, surprisingly chipper as she led the way through the halls.

"What? Why?" Bianca asked, cutting off what Percy was going to say.

"Well, mortals don't like us 'cause while they can't see our monster-y bits, they can still sense our 'freakishness.'" Penny said bitterly, "Demigods can generally tell we're monsters if we don't use the mist, and they generally kill us, I was lucky enough that there weren't many demigods where I grew up. I'm actually pretty sure you're the first demigod I ever met Bianca, and now I've met what? Five of them?" She asked rhetorically, "Monsters can smell the human part of us, some don't care - like empousa or dracaenae, they just kind of let me be, but hellhounds try to kill me, along with a variety of other monsters that I've encountered."

"Your life kind of sucks." Percy summarized, "Then who's you godl- I guess monster parent?"

"Hmm, Nico, you've got that card still, right? Would you mind showing it to Percy?" Penny asked, opening the door and strolling through.

"The Manticore?!" Percy exclaimed, quickly followed by a meaty *thwack* as Penny was sent flying forward.

"Yes, I was equally as surprised Perseus Jackson," A voice came from the other side of the door, the french accent clipped as the man walked to Penny, picking her up. "Imagine it, finding my daughter in Maine of all places, when she's supposed to be safe in England?" Thorn continued, hoisting Penny onto his shoulder and dispelling her illusions as he spoke, Penny's tail and claws shimmering into view. "I suppose I should count it lucky, I didn't think I would be seeing my daughter for another couple of years! I expected that her family would raise and care for her, but clearly, I was wrong." He said, frowning slightly before shrugging. "Ah, well, I suppose it doesn't really matter. She's still young, and I have plenty of time left to care for her myself." He finished, nodding a little as he gestured towards us. "Demigods! We have an appointment to make, and this has taken slightly longer than expected, let us hurry."

"We're not going to go anywhere with you!" Percy declared before he was struck by a longer spine, this time in his left shoulder. Percy was staggered slightly, his body wracked with pain as he yanked the spine out.

"Unless you desire another, placed directly in your skull, we will start moving. My employers will not be kept waiting!" Thorn said, gesturing towards the woods.

Bianca watched as the demigods whispered to each other, before starting to walk into the woods, she hurried to follow, pulling Nico along from where he was glaring at Dr. Thorn.

"Come on, I'm sure Penny will be okay, she's his daughter after all," Bianca said, trying to reassure Nico even as she worried.

'I hope Penny will be okay.'

* * *

**Greetings Readers, and welcome to the A/N You may have noticed the lack of them so far, and that's because this is literally how far I've written this story so far, you may have noticed that my other story Greener Pastures hasn't had any updates recently, that's because one of my dearest siblings decided it would be funny to do some 'cleaning' and deleted my 'personals' folder of my google drive, then deleted all the stuff in my trash, nice and thorough. Yeah. I was... a little pissed, at the very least my papers and writings for college were left untouched, (in such a case I would then be writing from prison) but my fanfiction, poetry, and notes that I use for my stories were all lost, leaving me rather... annoyed. I have since re-written my notes for the HP series, and am about halfway through for the for Percy Jackson, but decided I needed to post something. So here it is, a story idea heavily inspired by Mensch23's Hunter and Prey, which in turn was a response to Whitetigerwolf's MONSTEROUS challenge. I WILL finish this story, and will finish Greener Pastures, probably later when I have time to play through Mass Effect: Andromeda, as while I could write out the chapters based on my memory, my memory sucks.**


	4. From Hunted to the Hunter

_Even Later That Day_

Penelope POV:

Penelope woke up to the feeling of her face meeting the ground.

She shot up to her feet, only to stumble around drunkenly for a moment as she held her head, the combination of the headrush and killer headache combining into a deadly cocktail of dizziness.

"Penny?!" She heard from beside her, Penelope glanced to her side only to see Bianca laying near the edge of the cliff, glancing with fear over to Penny's right. Penny looked over to her right watching as Thalia barely managed to get her shield up in time to block one of Thorn's… paws? Yeah, his hand had turned into a large, orange paw.

Penelope watched them in a daze, seeing a tail pop out of nowhere that looked a lot like her own.

'No way…' Penelope thought, realization overcoming her as she glanced between her tail and her… father's?

That moment of awe was cut short as her 'father' shot a wave of spines at Thalia, who managed to intercept them with her shield, managing to be knocked back slightly instead of perforated. Grover started playing some music, confusing Penelope a little until she saw the grass growing and starting to tie Thorn down.

Her newfound father began to change quickly, turning from his formerly human form to the form of a manticore, spewing deadly thorns everywhere. Penelope quickly shot down the longer, more jagged thorns with her sleeker spines, stopping herself, Bianca, and Nico from getting hurt.

"A manticore!" Annabeth shouted from beside Bianca, always one for stating the obvious. Penelope glanced at her, noticing Percy who she had missed in her dazed state standing there too.

The manticore tore the grass from its paws, snarling and turning towards Penelope and her friends.

"Ah, Penelope you're up, why don't you be a dear and help me subdue these demigods? Then we can spend some time together… as a family." The manticore said, growling slightly at the word 'demigods.'

The tiny flame of hope that sparked when she learned that this was her father quickly went out at those words, after all, what kind of father would leave her at the Dursleys, then try to convince her to abandon her friends? A poor one. So she did the only thing she could, braced herself and stuck her tongue out. Preparing for the inevitable storm of thorns.

Predictably Thorn snarled, growling out: "We'll see how you feel about being a family after spending a decade in Tartarus!" He cried, before sending a flurry of thorns at Penelope, her friends, the other demigods, and Grover.

Penelope didn't look behind her, but she heard a couple of bodies hit the ground, dodging the deadly projectiles, she also heard Grover getting hit by one and crying out in pain. She couldn't focus on any of that though, as she had enough trouble deflecting the thorns coming at her with her spines.

Her father as it turned out, could send out a lot more thorns than Penelope could spines, but Penelope was much more accurate than him, leaving her with the upper tail.

His thorn-storm stopped and he cried out, "Yield!"

"Never!" Penelope heard Thalia yell in response, charging towards Thorn, spear in hand.

It looked like she was going to skewer him, but then a helicopter of all things came flying in from under the cliff, someone inside it directed the searchlight to Thalia, blinding her before Thorn swiped her with her tail, Penelope winced in sympathy, she remembered exactly how that felt.

Penelope squinted towards the mortal craft, spying the mortal who was directing the spotlight she quickly sent a grouping of spines at him. She didn't even hear him cry out in pain before he died. The helicopter banked slightly and Thorn looked at her, clearly impressed as they realized what she had done.

Thorn quickly shook off his visible pride and sent a wave of thorns at Thalia. Luckily Percy had already started running to protect her, parrying one of the spines and raising his shield in preparation. Penelope thought that it was rather stupid, as her father could easily send some spines at his legs, and he wouldn't even see it coming.

Speaking of her father he laughed a little, it came out as a gravelly chuckle as he continued to speak in a french accent, "Now do you see how hopeless it is?" He said, clearly referring to the missile-equipped helicopter behind him before turning to face Penelope, "Join me my daughter, and together we shall hunt, as father and daughter."

As though it was waiting for a cue, a horn called through the cliffside, dread chilling Penelope's veins as she remembered the warning Kelli gave her about the Hunters of Artemis.

"Listen up Penelope," Kelli had told the 10-year-old Penelope, "If you ever see a group of demigods, the first thing you need to do is look at what they're wearing. Most demigods wear silly orange or purple shirts that tell you they're easy prey, however, some of the girls will wear silver. You need to watch out for those. If you see any of them you need to run, and fast because those are the Hunters of Artemis. On their own they aren't too big of a deal, they're fast and strong, but that isn't too big of a deal, because they aren't as fast, or as strong as you are right now. They all carry silver bows and are rather good shots, but that isn't really what matters either. No, what makes them deadly is how they hunt, and it's always in packs. Those bitches have taken more of my sisters than anyone else! There have been a couple of times that I've barely escaped them, and I've never, never been able to kill one!" Kelli ranted, before taking a few deep breaths when she saw Penelope's scared look, "Sorry sweetie, I just got a little angry. What really matters is that you don't fight with them, you don't talk to them, you run when you see them alright? There are only a dozen of them, but when they hunt their arrows rain silver on their prey." She had said, before moving on and helping Penelope with her mist illusions.

So when Penelope watched the streaks of moonlight splitting Thorn's thorns as fast as he could fire them, she was understandably afraid.

Her father howled in pain as he yanked a silver arrow out of his shoulder, breathing heavily after throwing so many spines.

Percy ran up, sword in hand to capitalize on her father's apparent exhaustion, resulting in her father slapping him away with his tail.

The silver-clad hunters stalked into the clearing from the woods. "The Hunters!" Annabeth cried, forcing Penelope to bite down a sarcastic retort.

"Oh, wonderful." Penelope heard Thalia mutter from her position next to Percy.

One of the hunters stepped forward, a silver circlet glinting on her head as she kept her eyes on the manticore. "Permission to kill, my lady?"

Thorn whined loudly, "This is not fair! Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws."

"Not so," a different, shorter girl said, clearly younger than the first, yet power pulsed off her in waves. "The hunting of all wild beasts is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast." She finished, making Penelope gasp as she realized who it was, Artemis. Goddess of the Hunt.

"Zoë, permission granted," Artemis said, causing all the girls to draw their bowstrings back in preparation.

"If I cannot have these alive," He started, looking at Percy and Thalia murderously, "I shall have them dead!" He declared.

Penelope reacted quickly, even by her own standards as she sent a group of spines at her father's right knee, causing him to stagger. At that same moment, Annabeth shouted, "No!" She cried, charging at Thorn.

"Get back half-blood!" Zoë shouted, "Get out of the line of fire!"

But Annabeth ignored her, jumping onto the already crippled manticore's back, and stabbing her knife into her father's neck.

Thorn howled in pain, flailing about as he whipped his tail at Annabeth, Annabeth managing to hold on as he bucked wildly.

"Fire!" Penelope heard Zoë command.

"NO!" Percy screamed.

The hunters ignored him, releasing a wave of arrows, impacting Thorn's chest and driving past his mane.

"This is not the end Huntress! You shall pay!" Thorn cried as he was pierced by their silver arrows, jumping off the cliff, Annabeth still on his back. Percy started to run forward, before the helicopter rained gunfire on them, forcing the demigods to take cover.

'Another mortal?' Penelope thought, taking quick aim and firing another grouping of spines, hitting the mortal who had pushed his compatriot's body to the side. She then fired at the propeller's base denting it heavily and making the pilot lose control of his craft, sending it towards the ocean, where it crashed into the water heavily.

Artemis looked at her in slight shock, before that shock turned to amusement as she watched the hunters get up, looking between the cliffside and Artemis in confusion, before quickly dismissing it, starting to approach Penelope and the demigods.

"You," The leader, Zoë said with distaste drawing everyone's attention to Thalia.

"Perfect timing, as usual," Thalia said, her anger making her voice tremble.

Zoë's eyes scanned the rest of the group, before stopping suddenly when she met Penelope's verdant orbs, belatedly Penelope realized she forgot to re-apply her illusions. So her cat-like eyes and her tail were visible.

"Four half-bloods, a satyr, and somethi- someone else." Zoë said, clearly stopping herself from referring to Penelope as a 'something.'

"Yes," Artemis responded, glancing at Percy and Thalia, "Some of Chiron's campers, I see."

"Annabeth!" Penelope heard Percy yell, "You have to let us save her!"

"I'm sorry, Percy Jackson, but your friend is beyond our help," Artemis said calmly, turning to face Percy, and away from where I stood, next to Bianca and Nico.

Penelope watched Percy struggle briefly against the strength of some of the hunters. "You are in no condition to be hurling yourself off cliffs." Zoe declared, looking down on Percy as she spoke, disdain clear on her face.

"Let me go!" Percy demanded, "Who do you think you are?!"

Zoe stepped forward, hand cocked back like she was going to smack Percy before Artemis stopped her, "No," She ordered, "I sense no disrespect, Zoë. He is simply distraught. He does not understand."

Artemis looked down at Percy, her silver eyes staring impassively into his sea-green orbs. "I am Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt." Her voice rang through the clearing, the trees shuffling lightly as a phantom breeze passed through the clearing.

Penelope was pretty sure Percy said something like, "Um… okay." But that was quickly overshadowed by Grover's sudden prostration before her.

Penelope decided she didn't want to stick around at this point, Bianca and Nico should be safe with the hunters, but that didn't mean that _she_ was. So Penelope did what Kelli told her she should do in this situation, run. Penelope thought it was the perfect escape, her dark jacket and pants blending in in the wooded twilight as she sprinted through the woods. She heard a couple of shouts from behind her, but none that were anywhere nearby as she ran through the wooded terrain.

Penelope stopped after she had put a couple of solid miles between her and the cliffside, quickly climbing up a tree she peered through the darkness of the forest, scanning the ground for any glint of silver before she sighed, and relaxed a little as she recovered from her light sprint.

"That was a rather hasty run, one would almost think you didn't want to meet me." She heard from behind her, causing her to shoot, up, teetering on the thick branch she now stood on.

She quickly regained her balance and glanced behind her only to see the goddess, Artemis standing on a branch just above her, her silver eyes glinting in amusement as she watched Penelope panic.

Penelope tensed up a little before she realized the futility of such an action, despair poisoned her heart as she bowed her head, mumbling: "Just get it over with quickly," As she stood there, head hung low, preparing herself for her upcoming death.

"Very well," Artemis stated, jumping down to the branch Penelope stood on and grabbing her by the arm. White light filled Penelope's vision before she found herself in a… tent? She was sitting next to a fire, Zoë to her left with Artemis, and Percy who sat around the other side of it. She looked to her right only to see Bianca, who was glaring at her harshly, her eyes filled with tearful fury as she smacked her in the shoulder.

"You idiot!" Bianca berated, "Do you have any idea how worried you made me when you just ran off like that?! You could have at least said something before suddenly running off into the forest like that! A couple of hunters almost chased after you because you just started running away from them! You are lucky Lady Artemis told them to hold stay because they were all ready to hunt you down, bows in hand." Bianca huffed, her anger draining away as she finished scolding Penelope, before she suddenly embraced her, "I'm so glad you're okay, don't leave me like that again!" Bianca finished, trembling slightly in Penelope's arms.

"I won't Bianca," Penelope soothed, her earlier dread and confusion being replaced by a sudden warmth she felt as she held Bianca in her arms, "I promise."

The pair sat there by the fire for a moment, enjoying the warmth that it provided before Penelope heard an awkward cough from Percy.

"So are you guy's cool then?" He asked, interrupting their moment.

"No, I believe that they are rather warm," Zoë told Percy, looking at him in confusion, "Art thou chilly?"

"No, I meant… nevermind." Percy trailed off, causing Zoë to scoff, muttering something about foolish boys.

Percy's eyes traveled over to Artemis he stared at her for a moment, causing Artemis to ask: "Are you surprised by my age?"

"Uh… a little." He responded slowly, trying to avoid offending the deity before him.

"I could appear as a grown woman, or a blazing fire, or anything else I want, but this is what I prefer. This is the average age of all my Hunters and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray." Artemis said calmly, glancing towards where Penelope and Bianca sat.

"Go astray?" Percy asked, his confusion obvious.

"Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves." Artemis declared, a little disgust entering her tone at the end of her speech.

"Oh," Percy said, clearly not sure how he should respond to that. Zoë glared at him harshly, clearly disgusted by his belonging to the male gender.

"You must forgive my Hunters if they do not welcome you," Artemis said, glancing at Zoë as she spoke, "It is very rare that we would have boys in this camp. Boys are usually forbidden to have any contact with the Hunters. The last one to see this camp…" She thought for a moment, before looking at Zoë, "Which one was it?"

"That boy in Colorado, you turned him into a jackalope," Zoë answered before squinting at Percy, trying to visualize him as a horned rabbit. Penelope might have been more disturbed by this if Bianca hadn't turned around in her arms, turning back towards the conversation.

"Ah, yes, I do enjoy making jackalopes." Artemis nodded, her eyes drifting as she remembered. "At any rate Percy, I've asked you here so that you might tell me more of the manticore." She said, focusing back on Percy, "Bianca reported some of the… mmm, disturbing things the monster said. But she may not have understood them. I'd like to hear them from you." She finished, looking at Percy expectantly.

Percy recounted the past few hours, explaining how Penelope was knocked out, (causing the girl to wince in remembrance) and they were forced to walk through the woods, Penelope kind of fazed him out after that, soaking in the warmth the Bianca offered, appreciating the fact that Artemis decided not to kill her. Her eyes shut slightly, and she felt a slight rumble in her chest as she started to drift off.

"Penelope Potter, I believe it would be helpful for all of us if you stayed awake for a few more moments." She heard, snapping her out of her dozing, as she looked up she saw all of the eyes except Percy's, the other exception being Bianca who was staring directly at the crackling fire, a slight blush spreading down her neck.

"Yes, as soothing as thine purring is, we would like to ask thee some questions," Zoë added, her eyes glinting in amusement at Penelope's growing blush.

"I don't purr." Penelope stated resolutely, before hesitating slightly, "Right?"

"I wouldn't know, why not ask the one sitting in thine lap?" Zoë said innocently, looking away at Bianca's glare.

"A little bit... but it's cute!" Bianca reassured, before realizing what she said and blushing some more, staring back into the fire.

"As amusing as it is to watch thine actions, we, unfortunately, do have to ask you some questions," Artemis said, her amused eyes dimming slightly as she looked towards Penelope, who stiffened slightly against Bianca. "Penelope, we have heard others' accounts of your actions however some things remain unclear, would you mind providing us with your own account of the day?"

Penelope sighed slightly, trying to relax as she thought back to her morning, explaining the feeling of foreboding that she felt, that caused her to go to the school in the first place, she described her 'infiltration' of the castle - getting a laugh out of Percy and Bianca - and how she felt drawn in by Bianca's scent, Penelope decided to skip some of the details surrounding their day, only mentioning that she had thought something was off about Thorn, and quickly moving on to when she discovered that Bianca and Nico were demigods.

"Wait, I'm confused, how did you know that they were demigods by snapping your fingers?" Percy cut in, interrupting Penelope's flow slightly.

"Because they weren't too affected by my mist-speak," Penelope said casually.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked.

"... They don't teach you this at your camp?" Penelope demanded, "How are you expected to survive if you don't know this?"

Percy flushed in embarrassment as he rubbed the back of his neck, "Well… I mean… I think Thalia might know more than me, but Chiron hasn't gotten around to teaching me yet." He mumbled.

"Okay…" Penelope said, idly playing with Bianca's hair as she hesitantly began, "Most of it is common sense I guess, Percy, you can see my tail right now right?" She asked, receiving a nod of affirmation from Percy, "And a mortal couldn't?" She continued, receiving another nod. "Well, how about now?" Penelope said, weaving mist around her tail, hiding it from view.

"Nope, not anymore," Percy said, bouncing back from his earlier embarrassment as he watched Penelope's demonstration.

"This is one of a monster's primary uses of the mist, I use it to hide my tail, claws, and eyes so that if I happen to run into a demigod or monster in public, they don't know that I'm part monster." Penelope explained, "I'm pretty sure that Lady Artemis can still see my tail though." She said, receiving an affirming nod from the goddess.

Penelope focused harder for a moment, before slumping slightly against Bianca as she thickened the mist around her tail, trying to hide if from the Goddess of the Hunt.

"That's very impressive Penelope," Artemis stated, one of her eyebrows raised, "It's very rare that one can hide something from the sight of a god, especially at such a young age."

Penelope blushed lightly under her sudden praise, before dispelling her illusion, her tail reappearing as she caught her breath.

"The mist naturally hides most things from normal mortals, it takes some conscious effort to hide something from most demigods and monsters, it takes a lot more to hide anything from the gods, and I've been told that it's absolutely impossible to hide something from a clear-sighted mortal," Penelope said, still slightly winded from her exertion.

"Why?" Percy asked suddenly, "Why can clear-sighted mortals see through the mist?"

"No idea." Penelope responded, "Some think that it's to do with open-mindedness, but no one knows." Penelope thought for a moment before adding, "Well, maybe Lady Hecate knows."

Percy accepted this quickly, hesitating before asking, "Could you teach me how to do it? Control the mist? I'd ask Thalia but…" He trailed off, thinking about asking his semi-rival for help.

"I could, but it would take longer than I want to spend." Penelope said, before seeing Percy's expression fall, it was like kicking a puppy, that then turned it's soulful eyes at you asking 'Why?'

Penelope winced before looking away, "Fine, after this meeting I'll do my best to teach you the basics."

"Can I come too?" Bianca asked from her place in Penelope's lap, twisting around a little as she asked.

"I would like to see thine lesson as well," Zoë said, "I am curious about how monst- about how you use the mist."

Penelope rolled her eyes at Zoë's correction before responding, "Yeah, it's fine, the more the merrier right?"

"It has been my own experience that more people does not necessarily mean a more merry time, especially when it comes to teaching," Zoë answered seriously.

Penelope looked at Zoë weirdly, before Artemis spoke up, "As wonderful as your explanation was, the night grows deeper." She said, before glancing towards Bianca. "Have you made up your mind?"

"I'm still thinking about it," Bianca replied, uncertainty coloring her tone.

"Wait, thinking about what?" Percy said, unknowingly mirroring Penelope's thoughts.

"They… they've invited me to join the hunt." Bianca stated, glancing up at Penelope.

Zoë saw this and quickly cut in, "That invitation extends to you as well Penelope."

"What?" Penelope asked, struck dumb by Artemis' words.

"I agree," Artemis said resolutely, "Despite your parentage, you have proven yourself to be a brave maiden, and I would love for you to join my hunt."

Bianca thought for a moment, still clearly unsure as Percy spoke up, "But you can't! You have to come to Camp Half-Blood so Chiron can train you. It's the only way you can learn to survive."

"It is _not_ the only way for a girl," Zoë said, her nose scrunching at the mention of Camp Half-Blood.

Percy glanced bewilderedly between Bianca, Penelope, and Zoë before pressing on, "Bianca, camp is cool! It's got a pegasus stable and a sword-fighting arena and… I mean, what do you get by joining the Hunters?"

"To begin with, immortality." Zoë declared smugly.

"... She's kidding right?" Percy asked, staring at her, then Artemis.

"Zoë rarely kids about anything. My Hunters follow me on my adventures. They are my maidservants, my companions, my sisters-in-arms. Once they swear loyalty to me, they are indeed immortal… unless they fall in battle, which is unlikely." Artemis claimed, "Or break their oath."

"What oath?" Percy asked.

"To foreswear romantic love for men forever, to never grow up, never get married. To be a maiden eternally." She said, slyly glancing towards Bianca and Penelope at the 'for men' portion. Her slight adjustment to her normal speech drawing Zoë's attention, they shared a look for a moment before Percy commented.

"Like you?" He questioned, receiving a nod from Artemis.

Percy thought for a moment, his eyes glazing slightly before looking back towards the goddess. "So you just go around the country recruiting half-bloods-"

"Not just half-bloods, Lady Artemis does not discriminate by birth," Zoë said, sending a meaningful look towards Penelope, "All who honor the goddess may join. Half-bloods, nymphs, mortals-"

"Which are you then?" Percy asked tactlessly.

"That is not thy concern, boy." Zoë said, her irritation apparent, "The point is that Bianca and Penelope may join if they wish. It is their choice, not yours."

"Bianca this is crazy," Percy said. "What about your brother? Nico can't be a Hunter."

"Certainly not," Artemis agreed. "But could Penny be a camper?" She riposted, striking Percy silent. "You can see him from time to time," Artemis continued assuringly, "But you will be free of responsibility. He will have the camp counselors to take care of him. And you will have a new family. Both of you will." She finished, including Penelope in her final statement.

"A new family," The pair mumbled dreamily, hope rising in Penelope's chest as she imagined her new family, one that she shared with Bianca.

"Bianca you can't do this, it's nuts." Percy tried, clearly losing the battle as Bianca turned towards Zoë.

"Is it worth it?" She asked.

"It is." Zoë declared resolutely.

Bianca turned to look back at Penelope, who squeezed her sides reassuringly before Bianca asked, "What do we have to do?"

"Say this," Zoë told them, "'I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis.'"

"I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis." Their voices rang, Penelope's a little more confident than Bianca's.

Zoë nodded before continuing, "'I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt.'"

The pair repeated the phrase, waiting for a moment before Bianca asked, "That's it?"

Zoë nodded. "If Lady Artemis accepts thine pledges, then it is binding."

"I accept them both," Artemis said calmly.

The flames in the brazier brightened, and a silver glow pulsed through the room. Penelope breathed in and her pupils dilated sharply, she felt stronger, more connected to the forest around her, her senses sharpened slightly, just enough to be noticeable.

"I feel… stronger." Bianca said, opening her eyes as she took a deep breath.

"Welcome sisters," Zoë said, a grin overtaking her face.

"Remember your pledge," Artemis warned, "It is now your life."

Percy was struck speechless, his eyes darkened slightly in disappointment as he looked down at his feet.

"Do not despair, Percy Jackson," Artemis comforted, "You will still get to show the di Angelos and Penelope your camp. And if Nico so chooses, he can stay there."

"Great, how are we supposed to get there?" Percy asked grumpily.

Artemis closed her eyes. "Dawn is approaching. Zoë, break camp. You must get to Long Island quickly and safely. I shall summon a ride from my brother."

Zoë looked up sourly at Artemis, before nodding and gesturing at Bianca and Penelope to follow her, as they passed Percy, Bianca told him: "I'm sorry, Percy. But I want this. I really, really do."

Zoë, Penelope, and Bianca walked out of the tent, going first to a slightly larger tent, which held rows of silver bows and daggers on one side, and sets of silvery parkas and jeans. Zoë helped the two find a pair of their sizes; they then walked past a row of small, silver boxes. "Here," Zoë gestured to boxes, each small enough to pass for a pack of chewing gum. "You two will be sharing a tent unless thou have any objections?" Zoë said.

"Nope," Penelope grabbed one of the small boxes, feeling it for a moment. She could tell that there was some form of spatial manipulation involved, but couldn't really tell how or why. Zoë watched her in amusement as she tried to puzzle out the box.

"That will be thine tent, Penelope," Zoë told her, causing Penelope and Bianca to frown slightly.

"This box?" Bianca asked skeptically.

"If thee press down on one of the sides and toss it away it will expand into one of the tents we saw outside," Zoë revealed, causing Bianca's eyes to widen.

Penelope looked back down to the box in her hands and shrugged, setting it in her pocket. The trio then walked over to the rows of bows. Each of them was a tall recurve, there was a small variety of heights to the bows, but apart from that, they all shared the same silver look. They then walked over to the sets of silver hunting knives. The knives themselves had some subtle differences, some of them had longer handles or shorter blades, some exhibited slight curves while others had straight edges, they all shared two things though. Each knife had on paired to it, and all of them had a dull silvery sheen.

Zoë sized them to bows - Penelope had a slightly taller one than Bianca - and gestured towards the wide array of knives, telling them to pick a pair.

Penelope scoured the paired blades, eventually finding a slightly longer set that curved forward a little, similar to her claws. Bianca ended up choosing a set that featured a smaller handle, with a long straight blade. As soon as they made their selection their knives, and bow disappeared in their hands. Zoë explained: "The weapons of a Hunter only appear when called, focus on them and they should reappear."

Penelope focused slightly, imagining her bow appearing in her hands and soon she felt the cold silver of the bow. She watched Bianca do something similar with her knives. Penelope dismissed her bow with a thought and walked to where Zoë was standing, quickly followed by Bianca.

"It should be fine if I adjust the jacket a little right?" Penelope asked Zoë.

"Yes it is fine to make minor adjustments, but what is it that thee want to adjust?" Zoë asked, wondering what was so wrong with the jacket.

Penelope gestured back, waving her tail slightly and receiving an embarrassed blush from Zoë as she nodded. "Yes, I forgot that you may have different requirements... my apologies." Zoë bowed her head slightly and gestured for them to follow her out. As soon as they were outside the tent Zoë pulled a handle near the exit, collapsing the tent to a small box, before setting in a bag. Zoë snapped her finger, "Ah curses, I always forget something, remind me to fetch thee a quiver later, we are running late as it is."

The three of them walked outside, seeing Nico, Bianca walked towards him, speaking in hushed tones, leaving Penelope with Zoë as they watched Artemis and Percy talk. Penelope was about to step forward when Zoë grabbed her arm, "Cover thine eyes, tis not safe to watch as this god descends."

Penelope closed her eyes and saw color blooming in her lids, she quickly put a hand over them as well, blocking out most of the light.

"You may open thine eyes, Penelope," Zoë told her.

Penelope opened her eyes to see a fancy-looking car sitting in front of where Artemis and Percy stood. She wasn't really sure why it didn't have a roof but assumed there was probably a good reason for it. She saw a man walking forward, flashing them all a bright smile.

"Wow, Apollo is hot." Penelope heard Thalia say from her position next to Grover.

"He's the sun god," Percy mentioned.

"That's not what I meant."

"Little sister!" The man - Apollo called out, "What's up? You never call. You never write. I was getting worried!" He claimed cheerfully, hugging Artemis briefly as he finished.

Artemis sighed. "I'm fine, Apollo. And I am not your _little_ sister."

"Hey, I was born first. We're twins, and I was born first! I helped mother birth you!"

"Agree to disagree, little sis," Apollo said, making Artemis growl. He continued quickly, "So what's up? Got the girls with you I see. You all need some tips on archery?"

"I need a favor." Artemis bit out, "I have some hunting to do, _alone_. I need you to take my companions to Camp Half-Blood."

Apollo agreed, before suddenly jerking his hands out dramatically, "I feel a haiku coming on."

The Hunters all groaned before Penelope's voice rang through the clearing. "What's a haiku?" She asked innocently, unintentionally causing everyone to look at her.

"What's a haiku? _What's a haiku?!_" He cried, his voice dripping with despair. "How can you… no! I must correct this inadequacy! _Everyone_ should know what a haiku is! Even my sister's Hunters know what a haiku is! How do you not know what a haiku is?!" He questioned dramatically, stumbling his way over to where Penelope stood.

Penelope laughed a little at the crestfallen look on Apollo's face, before realizing he was serious. "... I don't know? I guess I just never learned?"

She watched as Apollo's eyes widened upon meeting her own, his mouth opening as he was about to continue his rant before Artemis suddenly cut in, "Brother, you should get going. These demigods will also require transportation." She said, gesturing to where Thalia, Percy, and Grover stood.

"Right, right." Apollo said absently, watching Penelope as he did so, "Penelope Potter?" He asked, suddenly serious, causing Penelope to tense. He looked at her for a moment, silent and unblinking before he suddenly sprung back into motion. "Well! Best we load up, huh? Ride only goes one way - west. And if you miss it, you miss it." He said cheerfully.

Penelope exhaled in relief as Apollo skipped back to his car, it never felt good to be under the scrutiny of a god. She watched as Apollo frowned suddenly, glancing around at the rather large group. "I hate to change out of sports car mode…" He muttered, before taking his car keys out, hitting a button. The car chirped and glowed brightly for a moment before a large bus took its place. "Right, everybody in."

Zoë ordered the Hunters to board the bus, each of them setting their bags in the space beneath the bus. "Here, sweetheart. Let me get that." Apollo said, grabbing for Zoë's bag.

"Brother," Artemis reprimanded sharply, "You do not help my Hunters. You do not look at, talk to, or flirt with my Hunters. And you do _not_ call them sweetheart."

Apollo apologized, stepping back and allowing each of the Hunters to stow their bags away. Penelope didn't have a bag, so she just set her silver parka and jeans on top of someone else's. She heard Artemis and Apollo talking behind her, but chose to ignore it in favor of standing next to Bianca.

"I will see you by the winter solstice." Penelope heard Artemis say, "Zoë, you are in charge of the Hunters. Do well. Do as I would do."

"Yes, my lady," Zoë responded.

Artemis knelt and searched the ground for a moment, before rising with a troubled expression, "So much danger, the beast must be found." She sprinted off into the woods, before disappearing.

"So, who wants to drive?" Apollo asked suddenly, turning around and jangling his keys as he grinned.

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**A/N: Hello again everybody! Twilit Bakery here, to write another hundred words that nobody will read! Just kidding, I'm sure you guys read this... right? Anyway please review! I know that I am probably missing something, I don't know too much about bows or knives so if you want to help correct anything I may have said wrong please do! My grammar is also kind of 'eh,' and I'm a relatively new writer, so any feedback helps! Unless it's from a mic, because that kind of feedback just hurts.**

**I was originally going to write something witty here about my R&R in the summary that could be a lot of different things, like 'Read and Review' or 'Rest and Relax' or 'Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle!' (The third 'R' is silent.)**

**At any rate I hope you enjoyed my story, and hope your ready for more! I have a lot more free time on my hands now, (three guesses as to why...) so I'll be writing more. I kind of hated writing this chapter, because a lot of it is straight from the book... but it was kind of necessary to establish Penny in the story. Oh no... using necessary evils for the Greater Good... I'm turning into Dumbledore! I'm just kidding, this isn't going to be one of those fics, as much as I enjoy a bit of angst now and then I feel sick when I write it. The darkness... it's slowly poisoning my veins! SOON I SHALL BE THE ONE TRUE RULER OF FANFICTION!**

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**... Anyway, now that I've sectioned off the corrupted section of my writing, I'll leave you with this: "What's a Hunter's least favorite fruit? The **_Boys_**enberry! Get it? 'Cause it has 'Boys' in it? I'm hilarious aren't I.**


	5. Sisterly and Non-Sisterly Bonding

**It's time for a disclaimer which I forgot about last time: _I Twilit Bakery, doth swear upon mine quill that neither Harry Potter, nor Percy Jackson and the Olympians are owned by me, I too swear that all of mine writing below was written by myself, and that animals of the feline variety are superior to those of the canine._**

**"I Love to Talk!" (... okay)**

**'I Hate Thinking...' or also 'Sarcastic Verbal Quotation'**

_**Italics were used in the making of this production.**_

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_December 2003_

Bianca POV:

The Hunters moved to the back of the bus, trying to avoid contact with the… _boys_ at the front. Bianca followed along with Penelope, walking to somewhere in the middle of the bus, leaving a couple of rows of seats between them and the campers.

Bianca's heart hurt at the thought of leaving Nico behind like she was doing now, but she also didn't want to be forced to well… take care of him, like she had been over the months following their parent's death. She flinched slightly at that thought, a wave of self-loathing rising as she realized that she had thought of Nico as a burden. Penny seemed to realize something was wrong, and pushed her into a seat, before staring at her own, deep in thought.

Bianca was startled when out of nowhere Penny pulled out her knife and started brutalizing the seat next to her.

"Penny?! What are you doing?!" Bianca yelped, startled by Penny's sudden act of violence. Her sudden outburst drew many looks, some of the Hunters laughing a little before looking away.

"Fixing the seat," Penny responded, looking at Bianca in confusion.

"Fixing the… oh… oh! Sorry, do carry on." Bianca said, Penny's tail coming back into view as she turned, sitting down, her tail settling in the stuffing-gutted seat. A flush of embarrassment worked its way over Bianca's face as she watched Penny settle in, stretching her upper body as she did so.

Bianca turned away quickly, looking towards the front of the bus where Thalia was in the driver's seat. Apollo was standing over her shoulder, gesturing to something before Thalia nodded.

Bianca didn't know that Thalia knew how to drive, she was a little impressed - Thalia only looked like she was 14.

As it turned out Thalia didn't know how to drive. Bianca tensed in her seat as they flew through the sky, hitting large bouts of turbulence as they were taken on a ride - a roller coaster ride.

Thalia only had one speed - full speed, and her sudden jerking turns on the wheel _really_ didn't make it any better. Bianca crashed into Penny, who had her claws driven through the roof as she grinned wildly.

"Bianca! Isn't this so fun! Thalia really knows what she's doing!" Penny cried out in joy as Thalia hit another turn.

Bianca looked into Penny's excited green eyes, her catty pupils staring right back at her as Bianca clung to Penny desperately. "No! We're all going to die, Penny!" She shouted in Penny's ears, making her flinch.

"No, look at Thalia! She's just shaking in excitement!" Penny said, nodding her chin towards where Thalia sat, trembling as she stiffly operated the vehicle. "She just wants to have a good time, relax!" Penny declared.

Bianca clung tighter to Penny, her words not calming Bianca in the slightest. She glanced around briefly, noting that Penny was the only person who seemed excited about Thalia's driving.

The Hunters - her sisters all looked a little green, holding onto the seat in front of them as they glared between Thalia; the driver and Penny; who's excitement in the face of their inevitable death was a little disturbing.

The campers didn't look any better, Percy seemed pale as a sheet as his eyes drilled into Thalia's head. Nico looked a little better, but that might have been because he was normally that pale. Grover looked near catatonic as they passed over the landscape, fires starting as Thalia drove them too close to the ground.

Bianca looked out the window, before looking away as she felt one of Penny's arms snake around her, Penny pulling her tighter to her body as she watched out the window, Bianca glanced at where Penny was looking, where the ground was approaching quickly, some buildings visible as they careened towards the area. Bianca watched as Penny's brow furrowed, before she felt Penny tense, apparently realizing that they were all about to die.

Bianca closed her eyes tight as she held onto Penny, hearing Apollo yell, 'Brake!' In panic didn't make her feel any better.

She felt Penny shift slightly and heard something pierce the floor as Penny stabilized herself in preparation for the upcoming impact.

Suddenly the bus took a sharp pitch down, she heard some of her sisters being sent out of their seats at the sudden shift.

There was a splash, followed by a hiss of steam as the bus suddenly stopped, sending some of its occupants to the floor.

Bianca opened her eyes, meeting the large cat-like orbs of Penny as Penny started grinning again, "See, told you Thalia knew what she was doing!" She said excitedly, before she pulled her left arm off of the ceiling, leaving behind a _hand_ful of vicious holes. Bianca watched Penny struggle to yank her tail from the floor, where she had lodged it in the final leg of their journey.

"Yes Penny," Bianca said, her tone dry as she detached herself from Penny, helping her pull her tail from where it was solidly dug into the bus' flooring, "You were right all along."

"Dost thee need any help, Penelope?" Zoë asked as she passed by, having finished checking on all the Hunters.

"Nope!" Penny said as she finally freed her tail from the flooring, "Let's go!" Penny declared as she walked towards the front of the bus, where the campers had already exited. They went down the steps and into the shallow water, where the bus had floated to and looked in the bus' storage area, Penny fished around the jumbled clothes, finally finding her silver parka and jeans, which were wet. Bianca pouted at her before Penny snapped her fingers, instantly drying the clothes.

Bianca grabbed her soaked bag, and held it out to Penny, making her roll her eyes before she snapped again, drying her stuff off. They walked over to where Zoë and the campers had gathered, Bianca saw Nico and headed towards him, hugging him slightly and telling him to 'make some friends,' Nico scowled in response, turning away from her as he walked towards where Percy stood. Bianca flinched slightly, before moving to where Penny was talking animatedly to Thalia.

"-as brilliant Thalia! I didn't know you were so good at driving! I was pretty sure we were going to die for a moment before you suddenly landed us in the lake! It was… it was…' Penny struggled to find the right word.

"Awesome?" Apollo provided.

"Awesome!" Penny declared.

"... I'm glad you enjoyed it?" Thalia said, a little off-put by Penny's enthusiasm.

"Alright sweeties, it's time for me to go!" Apollo grinned, provoking the Hunters into glaring at him, "Buh-bye now."

Bianca rolled her eyes, and pulled Penny away from the uncomfortable daughter of Zeus, leading her towards Zoë who was speaking agitatedly with Grover, eventually releasing a sigh of frustration as he started heading off, telling the Hunters to 'follow him.'

Bianca glanced at Penny, sharing an eye-roll they both followed Zoë as she led them to the cabin.

"So… this is Camp Half-Blood," Penny eventually said, looking around at the cabins, "I can't believe that I made it past the barrier."

"Thou art a Hunter of Artemis now, that supersedes any other traits thee may have." Zoe said resolutely, "How else would the formerly mortal among us be able to enter this camp?"

"Right," Penelope said, "What happened to all the demigods? I was told there should be like a couple hundred of them, not two-dozen."

"Most of the demigods only stay here during the summer," Grover claimed, dropping back when he saw no one was following him, "Anyways, we're here!" He said, gesturing to the silver cabin they stopped in front of.

Zoë rolled her eyes, "I thank thee for stating the obvious." Zoë walked up to the cabin door, and ushered them all in, closing the door firmly behind her as Grover tried to follow.

"Thank the gods! If I had to endure that satyr's doe-eyed looks for any longer I would have shot him!" One of the Hunters, a larger girl declared, before looking towards Penny and Bianca and walking towards them. "Welcome sister to the Hunt!" She said rambunctiously, reaching around each of them and giving them a quick squeeze, "My name is Phoebe, daughter of Ares," She scowled at the war god's name before continuing, "If you need anything, simply ask." Phoebe stepped back, allowing the other Hunters to introduce themselves to Penny and Bianca.

They all spoke for a few moments, each of them giving a brief introduction before grouping up and heading off into the camp, Phoebe went off with a couple of the others to the basketball courts, while Penny and Bianca followed Zoë to the archery range.

Zoë had somehow acquired two silver quivers and handed them to each of the girls, "Stand here," She ordered, stopping them at the '50 yard' marker. "Now take out your bows, and fire at the target." She told them, pointing at one of the targets down the field.

Penny and Bianca did as they were told, their bows appearing in hand as they each took a stance, somehow knowing what they needed to do as they took aim, Bianca fired first, her arrow landing just outside of the bullseye, surprising herself.

"Artemis is the goddess of archery, as well as the hunt. Thine arrows shall always fly true." Zoë stated at Bianca's surprise.

Emboldened by Bianca's success, Penny released her own arrow, it traveled quickly, landing in the target's… red ring, that surrounded the bullseye. Penny scowled, before drawing and quickly firing another arrow, which landed again, in the red ring.

"..." Zoë looked at Penny, stunned. "Perhaps you need to move a bit-"

"No! I've got this, I'm not going to let this target beat me!" Penny interrupted, refusing to back down, she quickly fired the rest of her arrows, her hands blurring slightly as she set the arrows loose. She squinted slightly and scowled at the target, before reaching for her quiver again - which was empty.

Zoë shook herself from the stupor she fell in, Penny's apparent mastery of the bow surprising her before she glanced at the target, and started laughing.

Bianca found herself in a similar situation as she looked down the field at the target, which had a single arrow burrowed in the yellow print, the others scattered about the target's face.

"Tis truly amazing," Zoë snickered, catching her breath, "For the first time in centuries Lady Artemis' blessing has failed to grant thou accuracy, yet succeeded in giving thee skill with the bow!"

Penny scowled at her briefly before dismissing her bow, she stood there for a moment, squinting at the target, before her tail went into a flurry of motion, sending easily a dozen spines at the target in a matter of seconds. This time, each of her projectiles hit the bullseye, splitting each other as she burrowed deeper into the target, "I guess it's a good thing I don't need a bow then." She declared, smugness entering her tone.

"I suppose so," Zoë said, composing herself, "Then I suppose we are here to assist Bianca instead." She said, looking back towards the other new Hunter. "Fire thine arrows, Bianca, as fast as thou art able." She ordered, this time gesturing to all of the targets in the range.

The group stayed there for a while, Zoë giving Bianca tips on how to refine her firing as Penny wove the mist around her silver parka, allowing her to fit her tail through it. Eventually, they left the range, Bianca was tired from all that firing, each arrow sapping some of her newfound strength. She leaned slightly against Penny as they made their way to the cabin, changing into their silver garb before moving to the dining pavilion.

"Zoë! Penelope! Bianca! How did it go at the range?" Phoebe greeted them, pulling them onto the bench, Zoë sitting at the table's head as she greeted their sisters.

"It went pretty well," Bianca said, before lowering her voice to a stage whisper, "I don't think Penny thought too highly about it though."

"Why not? Lady Artemis ensures that our arrows fly swift and true?" Phoebe replied, her confusion obvious.

"Nobody told Penny here that," Bianca replied teasingly, smirking at Penny who rolled her cat-like eyes, "Penny only managed a single bullseye!"

Phoebe laughed loudly, her voice echoing through the chilly room, "Truly? And I thought I was the only one." She replied, looking towards Penny who was a little surprised, "Yes, it's true, while I am now a much better shot with the bow, my blessing seemed to focus around honing my tracking skills, to this day I am the best tracker in all the Hunt!" Phoebe boasted.

"And ever so humble about it too," Zoë said dryly.

"I simply know my strengths Zoë, my eyes are sharp and my arm is strong, there is none stronger in the Hunt than I," Phoebe said confidently, before starting to flex rather comically.

"I don't know about that…" Bianca said, looking slyly towards Penny. "Penny here could lift both myself and my brother without being winded! And that was before she was given Artemis' blessing!"

"Hmm…" Phoebe said, observing Penny sharply, "She doesn't look like much, tall maybe, but strong?" Phoebe continued, doubtful of Bianca's claims.

"She doesn't look strong, but that's what makes her so threatening! Her arms are as tough as stones!" Bianca declared, drawing the eyes of some of her sisters.

"Truly? I must see this myself! Come, Penny, roll up your sleeves!" Phoebe said, working her own up her arms and clearing a spot on the table.

"... Okay?" Penny said, rolling the sleeves of her silver parka up.

Phoebe set her right arm against the cold wooded table, Penny looked at her blankly for a moment before following suit, grabbing Phoebe's hand. The other Hunters quieted down as they watched what was about to happen. "Do you not know how to arm-wrestle?" Phoebe asked after watching Penny's confused look.

"No? What is an arm-wrestle?" Penny asked bewilderedly.

Phoebe's eyes widened in horror at Penny's ignorance, unknowingly copying Apollo's expression earlier that day.

"It's a noble sport! Strength against Strength!" Phoebe said dramatically, "We set our strengths against one another in an attempt to wrestle the other into submission!"

Some of the Hunters rolled their eyes, smiling slightly at Phoebe's exuberance.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Penny asked, making Bianca smile slightly.

"Win," Bianca declared.

"We shall attempt to push the other's arms down onto the table, and hold them there for some seconds, we shall have Zoë be our judge," Phoebe stated clearly, settling from her earlier state into one of calm.

"Okay then," Penny said, rolling her shoulders as she readied her right arm for the upcoming challenge.

"Are you ready?" Phoebe asked when she saw Penny was done.

"Yup." Penny replied, popping the 'p.'

"On thine marks!" Zoë started, "Get set! Go!"

The two tested the waters a little, to begin with, each exerting an increasing amount of strength as time went on, before suddenly Phoebe pushed as hard as she could, forcing Penny's arm to dip as she matched Phoebe's strength.

Penny stared into Phoebe's strained face and asked, "Is this all you've got?" Setting off a round of laughs around the table, each of them remembering themselves in a similar situation, Phoebe asking that same question.

Phoebe struggled more, forcing all she had into this final push. Penny smirked lightly and started pushing Phoebe's arm towards the table, there were occasional jerks as Phoebe fought back, but eventually, the smooth descent stopped, Phoebe's arm laying against the chilled wood.

"3… 2… 1… 0! Penny is the winner!" Zoë declared, awe filling the eyes of the Hunters as they saw the ease with which Penny defeated Phoebe.

"That's… that's a Hades... of an arm you've... got there sister," Phoebe said, gasping slightly for breath while Penny looked only slightly winded.

Bianca heard muttering about 'monsters' coming from behind her, she glanced around at the campers but couldn't identify who said it.

"Hey Bianca, you should try arm-wrestling Phoebe too," Penny said, a little too innocently as a gleam entered her eye, "It's only fair after all."

"Oh… I don't know, Phoebe just arm-wrestled you, and I'm sure she needs to recover for a moment." Bianca replied, looking away from Penny's eyes.

"Nonsense sister! I am just about recovered, but if you are concerned about fairness, then I shall use my left arm instead." Phoebe stated, still winded from her session with Penny.

Bianca watched her sisters' eyes turn towards her, each of the eternal maidens excited to watch another contest of strength. She sighed, before nodding her consent, rolling up her sleeves as she switched spots with Penny.

Bianca walked out of the pavilion with a sore arm, she and Penny left after Chiron mentioned a round of 'Capture the Flag' that was taking place tomorrow between the Hunters and the campers. Bianca rubbed her sore arm while giving Penny the stink eye, "You knew she would beat me didn't you?" She accused.

"Yep," Penny said cheerfully… a little too cheerfully for Bianca's liking, "She was really strong! Just not as strong as I am."

"Of course not," Bianca said, rolling her eyes.

The two walked in companionable silence towards the cabin, their arms brushing slightly as they stepped in sync.

"Penny, do you think I'm a bad person?" Bianca asked suddenly, remembering her decision to join the Hunt, leaving Nico behind.

"What? Of course not Bianca, why would you think something like that?" Penny asked her, stopping her and staring into her eyes.

Bianca glanced into Penny's eyes which almost shone in the night, before looking away again, "Nico… I just feel like I'm abandoning him…" Bianca whispered, her voice trailing off as her eyes welled up with tears. "I think he feels like I'm abandoning him too."

"Bianca, it's okay, I'm sure that eventually, Nico will understand." Penny comforted, pulling Bianca in closer and guiding her towards the beach. They walked there in silence, Bianca drawing comfort from Penny's presence as they sat.

They sat there in silence, listening as people left the dining pavilion, the noise slowly bleeding into silence as the moon drifted overhead.

"You know," Penny started suddenly, breaking Bianca out of her depressed state, "I was in this kind of situation before too." Bianca turned towards her, but Penny's eyes refused to leave the horizon, "I guess I was more like Nico than you though," She continued, her eyes glazing slightly as she remembered.

Bianca stared at her for a while, before rubbing Penny's knee in comfort, trying to get her to say more.

"I… well…" Penny started, "I don't even know where to start really…"

"The beginning generally works," Bianca said, remembering when Penny told her that she was a demigod.

"Yeah… I guess," Penny said, smirking at Bianca, "Worked out well enough the first time right?"

Bianca felt Penny take a deep breath before she spoke, "My earliest memory was of darkness." She started, "I think I was three, maybe four. My aunt and uncle… weren't nice people, I'm still not sure if it was because they could feel something was wrong with me or what, but they treated me like a slave, the darkness I remember was of a cupboard, barely five feet across, I started cooking at around four, I can still remember the feeling of the grease burning my skin when I dropped it." She rubbed her arm lightly before she continued, "I started in the garden a little later, then it was washing the dishes, doing the laundry, cleaning up after meals… I can't remember when they all started, but eventually, I was doing all the chores in the house, and my _relatives_ made sure to 'discipline' me." Penny hissed the last few words, before gritting her teeth, "Vernon was the one who started it, I burnt the bacon, badly, and he was angry that I was 'trying to poison him and his Dudders.'" Penny's eyes started glowing as she raised her voice, "He punched me in the stomach and kicked me a couple of times, luckily the tub of lard was too weak to do any lasting damage." Penny declared forcefully, before calming herself slightly, forcing herself to move on, "Dudley saw this and decided that he and his friends shouldn't be left out of the fun. They made a game of it, 'Penny Pressing,' they would chase me until I eventually fell, then they _pressed me into the ground_." Penny spit the words out hatefully.

Bianca watched as Penny regained control of herself, drawing little circles on her knee to help her calm down.

"That's around when my monster heritage started appearing, I have no idea why I wasn't born with it, but slowly I started to change. My claws started appearing, my eyes started changing and my tail finally came in on my eighth birthday." Penny's eyes darkened slightly as she spoke, "Vernon came home drunk that day, in a towering rage about something, he whipped me a few times with his belt before he pulled his pants down and tried to rape me." Bianca gasped slightly, making Penny rub her side comfortingly as she continued, "I killed him." Penny said bluntly, "I remember watching his corpse for hours before I just walked out. I still don't know what happened to my aunt or cousin, and honestly, I don't really care either."

"I'm sorry," Bianca told her.

"For what?" Penny asked bewilderedly.

"That you had to do that," Bianca responded, "He deserved it though." She added, her black eyes darkening another shade as she spoke.

"Don't be, it happened and now it's over," Penny said bluntly, "That's not the part that matters though, it's only the beginning." She stated, her eyes drifting again as she thought.

"So there I was, eight years old and on the run, I'm not really sure what the police thought had happened, but there were soon reports about the eight-year-old murderer. It was hard for a while, I tried to stay in the cities at first, but after a few kidnapping attempts, I decided it wasn't worth the risk. I moved to the forests with nothing but the clothes on my back. One day though, I walked near an intersection, and a girl steps out of the shadows holding a torch, I can still remember what she told me, she said 'Penelope Potter, you stand at a crossroads, choose your destiny wisely, else you will suffer under the hand of Fate for all of eternity.' I looked down each of the roads, each of them showed a different future. In one, I went back to Privet Drive, where an old man found me and forced me to live with my aunt, but not before taking away my tail, my claws, and my eyes. I was left there and suffered constantly until I eventually killed myself in despair." Penny closed her eyes for a moment as she re-lived that vision. "The second showed me walking forward, I ended up hiding in the forest I resided in, becoming a local legend of sorts before one day I was captured by some weirdos using sticks, they pulled me into a cage and set me loose against a dragon, a large crowd watching as I killed the beast, before attacking the people who captured me. A lot of red lights hit me and I died." Penny described, her brow furrowed in thought as she tried to remember the third path. "The road to my right showed me heading to London, before one day I went to America for some reason. I can't remember too many details, but I remember a blizzard, the howling of wolves, and a cage made of earth, I killed the two who were standing next to it, and a giant person rose from the ground, the last thing I saw in that one was a golden blade sprouting from my chest." Penny said, shuddering slightly at the blurry images. Bianca hugged Penny tighter at that, both of them sitting in silence before Penny continued.

"The final path was the one I chose, I went to America on a cargo boat, eventually finding someone who could teach me how to survive, then the path faded into the shadow which I thought at the time was kind of weird, but was better than the deaths all my other choices provided." Penny said, "It was like some kind of bad joke, the lady who was standing there smirked at me when I walked down the road, it's not like I had any choice." She reflected, before shrugging, "Well, I kind of understand why it showed me the whole 'fading into shadow' thing now, but at the time I was really confused."

"Why did it do that then?" Bianca asked suddenly.

"The shadow thing?" Penny continued at Bianca's nod, "Well, that wasn't the last time I've met Lady Hecate at the crossroads, but that's a little later in the story."

Penny took a deep breath before pushing on, "I was in America for a year before I ran into a trio of high school girls who were dragging a body into the woods."

"What?!" Bianca demanded, her voice rising slightly.

"Yep," Penny said, "I followed them through the forest, jumping from tree to tree because I didn't want to be anywhere near them if they noticed me." Penny said wistfully, remembering her first encounter with her mentor, "It didn't matter in the end, Kelli - the leader of the trio disappeared in a burst of flames, I remember feeling confused for a couple of seconds before I heard a voice behind me ask 'What's hangin'?'" Penny thought for another moment, "Actually, that was the same kind of thing Lady Artemis did to me today, huh, talk about deja vu."

Penny laughed a little, "I almost fell out of the tree I was in, Kelli introduced herself as, well, Kelli and asked me 'What's a little girly like you doin' following us?'" Penny quoted, her voice becoming higher pitched, "'Why aren't your eyes somethin' special? Ya know, I was told to look out for a girl with a tail and bright green eyes.' So she took me in, told me who I was, helped me find my parentage, kept me healthy and fed as she taught me how to use the mist."

Penny took a few calming breaths as she pushed on, "She taught me everything I know; illusions, mist-speak, and sensing the use of the mist were just the beginning of what she said she would teach me, we grew… close. She called me her 'pride and joy,' her best student." Penny smiled wryly as she thought of what happened next, "She was like the mother, sister, and best-friend I never had, she helped me throw spines faster, taught me how to use my claws better, helped me sharpen my senses, I owe everything to her." Penny said, starting to tear up as she spoke, "She was the first person to celebrate my birthday with me, the first person to tuck me in at night, she taught me to read… taught me how to defend myself against monsters… and demigods…"

Bianca rolled over slightly, straddling Penny's legs as she hugged her tightly, rubbing circles on her back as Penny started to break down.

Penny started to sob as she remembered, "I remember when she caught me watching some kids play tag, so the next day she had us go into the forest to play 'catch the demigod,' she'd dress herself up in some sort of illusion and I'd have to try to catch her. One time I was chasing after her and she led me into a pack of hellhounds, telling me that 'some demigods are crafty, and will try to lead you into traps,' before disappearing, when I finally got back to the motel, the room we were staying in was decorated with so many balloons, Kelli was putting up a banner that said 'Happy Birthday Penelope!'" Penny giggled a little, "She turned around so fast she fell off the chair she was standing on!"

Penny kept talking, the stars drifting past as she shared her life with Bianca, she had just finished reminiscing about when they killed some mortals who tried to kidnap them in Maryland when Bianca decided to interrupt.

"Penny, if you were so happy with Kelli, then what happened? What happened to Kelli?" She asked cautiously, feeling Penny tense underneath her, she quickly added: "It's okay if you don't want to tell me, I'm sure it's personal."

"No… I was going to tell you anyways, I just got caught up in my memories," Penny said, her earlier state of contentment replaced with one of anger, "We were passing through a city when Hecate showed up with a young empousa called Tammi, she told Kelli that she wanted her to train Tammi and then left." Penny sighed in frustration, "Tammi was… difficult, like most empousai she was born as an adult, but she didn't know how to control her powers or use the mist or anything. She started taking more of Kelli's time and attention, which I was a little frustrated about, but I dealt with it. She liked to tease me, mocking the fact that I was half-human, that I was a child, she harped on any mistakes I made and tried to make me look bad in front of Kelli." Penny grit her teeth slightly, "She loved to criticize the fact that I only killed 'bad' mortals saying that, 'Mortals are like sheep, there aren't any bad sheep,' or that I was tainted by the mortal blood within me. It was worse when Kelli started to agree with her on some things, she never said it but she gave me these disappointed looks when I didn't help them kill random mortals."

"You were right Penny, it's wrong to kill people for no reason," Bianca reassured, trying to help Penny through her story.

Penny sighed, "Yeah, I know, otherwise I'd hardly be the well-rounded monster you see before you!" She finished jokingly, provoking Bianca into slapping her arm.

"You aren't a monster Penny," At Penny's raised eyebrow she corrected herself, "I mean… you're only half of one?"

Penny laughed bitterly, "No, I'm a monster, I just happened to have been born to a mortal." Bianca frowned at this, making Penny explain her statement, "Being a monster isn't something you can be half of, descendants of monsters are monsters themselves, it's just a matter of whether or not we have immortal souls."

"Immortal souls?"

"Yeah, it just means that when you die your soul goes to Tartarus instead of the Underworld, it doesn't mean anything special because all souls are technically immortal." Penny thought for a moment before tacking on, "An immortal soul can only be separated from your body by an immortal metal, flesh, or magic of some kind, it's why monsters and gods can only be harmed by celestial bronze."

Bianca thought about this for a moment before asking, "Then what makes gods and monsters different?"

Penny's eyes sparkled a little as she answered, "Nothing."

Thunder rumbled in the distance, making Penny roll her eyes before she added, "Well, I guess degrees of power, but that's basically it."

Bianca's eyes widened as Penny told her this, "Then why are most monsters evil?"

"Evil?" Penny scoffed, "Hardly... monsters are generally more instinctual and for the most part don't feel remorse, but that doesn't make them evil just like how gods being more 'intelligent' doesn't make them good." Penny snorted, "Hades! You could probably make an argument that gods are actually _more_ evil because they _know_ the exact repercussions of their actions and do them anyways."

"What?! But the gods rule the world! They defend people from threats and stuff." Bianca claimed eloquently, her voice rising slightly.

"And when they're angry, jealous, or horny they kill mortals in droves when the King of the Gods and Percy's dad are angry storms rage across the earth! When the goddess of _agriculture_ got angry she created a season in which nothing grows, leaving people to die of cold and starvation! When the guy who gave us a ride today gets angry he _creates_ deserts by scorching the Earth with his sun." Penny ranted, before calming herself down, "Kelli is an old, old empousa, and even she hasn't killed more than a couple hundred thousand mortals across her whole life-span, the _love _goddess, the one who many believe to be harmless killed more than that by starting the Trojan War! Hades! Great... now I feel bad for using the god's name as a curse because he's one of the better ones! It's not his fault that a lot of his kids tend to be crazy, (Bianca felt a little insulted for some reason) Hades' only major fault is that he tends to hold grudges, but he favors those who assist him, heck, I bet he's only killed a couple hundred of people in the past few millennia, it's just most of those are demigods."

Bianca sat there silently as Penny wrapped up her tirade, she was about to speak when they heard a cabin door slam loudly before they heard… Zoë(?) arguing with someone.

They both shared a look, and shot to their feet, jogging towards where they heard Zoë's voice.

Neither of them noticed as invisible feet made tracks back towards the cabins.

* * *

**A/N: So I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I did write a little more about Penelope's past than I intended, hopefully it wasn't too wordy for all of you! I originally intended to have a POV switch to Percy, but I am going to hold that for next chapter. I apologize to any huge Percy fans, but I won't be writing too much from his point of view. (Three guesses as to who was listening to them talk! Actually, I'll just tell you: it's Percy!)**

**On another note, I hope you are willing to review the story. Any feedback helps, except for the trolling kind. If you have any suggestions for me I am always willing to hear them out!**

**Anyway, it's like 11 p.m. right now, and I just wanted to publish this chapter before tomorrow, so I'm going to be peacing out! But not before I leave you will another brilliant joke: "Why did Ares give Percy his shield? 'Cause he turned to the other side!"**

**... That one hurt, I'm sorry. I'm tired, and I started trying to think of a joke off the top of my head, guess I'll just stick to writing puns.**


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